Nobody Special
by A.D. Williams
Summary: It should be no surprise that Light's become a Nobody. Now he's being forced to work for the Organization. In the meantime, L has his hands full solving the mystery of Light's missing heart...if he could figure out how to get off a certain island first!
1. Awakening

Death Note and Kindom Hearts? Say what! ^_^

Well, once upon a time, DN was my life, my soul, my everything. Then KH came along…and the love faded. With this combination, I'm hoping to revitalize the spark I felt for Death Note and still appease my new fandom obsession.

So, do enjoy the by-product of my two loves combined, ^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Death Note, except for Light's Nobody.

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Awakening

In a moment of boredom between classes at his university, Light was watching the news on his phone. Above him, Ryuk sat cross-legged, looking like he was meditating and chanting sutras to himself.

"Ooohhmmmm…apples, apples, apples, apples….ooohhhhhmmmm…." The shinigami hummed.

"You know, it's a little distracting to have you doing that," Light muttered into the palm of the hand that his cheek was leaning against, disguising him talking to the shinigami.

"Oh, all you're doing is killing more people, that's not all that hard of work. If I were you, I'd work on bringing up that A minus you have in psychology. There seems to be some small detail about the human mind that you've missed." He chuckled at the irony of it.

"I concentrate better knowing the world is a safer place," Light said, scribbling down the name of a woman who had auctioned off her children at despicable prices. "I can't let up on my punishments or else the world will think Kira has gone soft. It must be known that there is someone out there passing divine judgment."

Ryuk rolled his eyes at the speech he heard at least twenty times a week, then glimpsed down at the cell phone screen. "Speaking of divine judgment, it seems the news is all over the Pope's travels here lately. What's so great about that guy anyways? What makes him so holy?"

"You know Ryuk, I think you're actually on to something." The teenager brought the phone up closer to his face. "These people are supposed to be a beacon of purity and goodness for the entire world, but personally speaking, I don't think so. Nobody in this world is perfect and what gives this guy the right to think he is? He must believe he is a god! There is only one true god on this earth and I will not be made second!"

With a cruel smirk on his face, he began writing down the names of the cardinals. One by one, they fell, clutching their chests as the heart attacks struck and breaking up the orderly procession through the Vatican.

"What'd they do?" Ryuk asked him.

"For worshipping a false god," Light said simply. Then his main target came into view, but already security was pushing him into a vehicle to whisk him away from the chaos. No matter, the news would only air his title, not his actual name anyways. He simply typed the title into a Google search bar and in less than ten seconds, he had the information he needed.

It was with the greatest satisfaction that he had felt yet since owning the Death Note that he wrote down the Pope's true name in the book.

The seconds seemed to tick by interminably. He held his breath for some reason, the blood pounding loudly in his head as he waited for the forty seconds to pass.

At long last, a breaking news report was issued and the headline 'Pope Mysteriously Dies' came across the screen.

Light would forever be able to recount the next events for everything seemed to slow down and yet speed up at the same time. The college campus had become completely silent, as though they had known the instant he had killed the man. Light only stood up (still seemingly in slow motion) and closed the Death Note, slipping it back into his book bag. Just as he was about to place the pen in a coat pocket, he felt his heart give a harsh pound, and instead dropped it.

Had he just gone into cardiac arrest? Was he suffering a heart attack himself? It felt as though his heart had completely exploded. He was only aware of those brief, intense seconds of pain and then…a sensation of disconnection.

His last moments as a human passed too quickly for him to savor. He watched his own body collapse on the ground and a group of students and faculty members rush to his side, shaking him, shouting his name, begging him to wake up. Someone screamed for an ambulance to be called.

All the while, Ryuk's laughter had slowly been getting louder and louder until it was the only sound Light could focus on. His eyes met that of the shinigami, then recoiled. This wasn't Ryuk's normal laugh. This was the mirthless laugh of one who knows you've just fallen into an inescapable trap.

And with the horrible image of those red eyes and bared teeth burned into his memory, darkness clouded Light's vision.

~.~.~.~.~

He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but evidently quite a bit since when he awoke, it was night time. He became aware that he was still outside, albeit not on his college campus. He rolled over onto his hands and feet, then looked up.

The concrete courtyard and buildings had been replaced with endless hilly fields. As though he had been placed there on purpose, he was standing in the middle of a dirt cross road, left with the decision to pick one of four directions.

_What in the hell? _He thought. Who would really just pick him up, drag him way out into the middle of the country and then just dump his body without possibly killing him? He checked himself and found that his backpack of books was on the ground beside him. This only made things even weirder.

"So, they didn't rob me, they took the time to give me my books and…just where the hell am I?" He wracked his brains to think of any rural areas outside of Tokyo, and although he could name a few, none of that helped until he could pinpoint himself on a map. That's when he remembered that he still had his cell phone!

"Blessed be technology," he chuckled. He turned it on and quickly logged into his GPS navigation system.

It came up blank.

"What? This can't be right…don't tell me I'm so far out of civilization that there's no satellite signal here!"

He began to walk around in circles, hoping to get a connection. This was _not _the time for technology to fail him!

In the middle of his pacing, he neglected to notice a black portal open close to him. A dark figure stepped out of it, then closed it behind him.

"Find new members, eh?" the person scoffed. "As if! This Organization already has enough people. Good thing there's a lot of space or else things would be pretty claustrophobic." The man paused to take in the teenage boy walking around in circles.

"Oh man, you've gotta be kidding me. This kid evidently doesn't know his head from his ass." He sighed. "I hate newbies."

He walked up to Light, getting in his way. Light didn't notice him until it was too late and thus bumped directly into his chest, somewhat bounced off, and was forced to take a few steps back. "Whoa! Er…where did you come from?"

"I came from where you're about to be going," the man said. "C'mon, I ain't got all day. Everyone's waiting and I'm not going to hear the Superior bitch and moan at me for taking too long."

The problem with the current situation with Light was that he possessed quick, witty remarks, knowledge of all things in books, and a very keen sense of intuition. But none of that did any good if your opponent was not one for words, but action. This man was nearly a foot taller than him and it was clear that under the dark cloak he was wearing, he had some muscle on him.

So, he did the only sensible thing he could think of. He ran.

The other man gwaffed. "Aw, man. This spineless kid never had any heart to begin with!" With another heavy sigh, he simply warped right in front of Light, making him run into him again. Except this time, he grabbed his arm to hold him there. "You're really starting to become a pain in the ass, fella."

Light struggled against the tight grip, which was pointless considering his much weaker arms. "Look, if this is about the Death Note, then fine, I relinquish ownership of it! Other than that, I have nothing else to offer."

"Death Note? What are you young people smoking these days?" The man shook his head. "Whatever. I'm Xigbar. And if I were you, I'd put this on so that you don't officially die." He threw a dark cloak like his at him and then let go of his arm.

Light stared at it for a moment before pulling it over his head. It came down to just before his ankles and fit him snugly, but not constricting. Almost like it had been tailored for him. "Soo…what's this for? And you said 'officially die.' Am I…in purgatory or something?"

Xigbar chuckled, and in the starlit night, Light made out an eye patch and a deep scar on his face. "As if!" he said. "Last time I checked, purgatory's quite boring. Nah, you're kind of in an in-between state of life and death. You lost your heart kid, so you're not actually alive. In fact, you're not even supposed to exist!"

Light gasped. Had he really lost his heart? But how was he breathing? His chest still rose and fell with breaths, as though nothing had gone wrong.

Xigbar studied him, then let out another laugh. "You're over-analyzing, I can tell. Look, be a good boy and don't struggle and you'll find your answers." He cast open a dark hole to the side, and gestured for Light to go in first.

What choice was he left with? Trying not to show how hard he was shaking, he stepped into the portal. The man followed after him and for a few seconds, everything was dark. It didn't feel like his feet were on solid ground either. Then a sharp brightness washed over them and at last, he could make out his surroundings again.

A castle. No castle that he'd ever seen in any books really, except for maybe fairy tales. But he wasn't about to count those. Or…maybe he should?

"C'mon, everyone's still waiting for us," Xigbar said and took the lead. He was half dragged down numerous long hallways, past a kitchen and a dining room, and various other places until he lost count. Finally, the man stood outside of a pair of double doors. "Final destination," he smirked, and pushed Light ahead of him into the room.

Light seriously wished he'd brought some sunglasses. The room was completely white, with over a dozen large chairs sitting in a circle. He himself must've seemed like a spec on the floor to the other dark robed figures sitting there.

Xigbar nudged him forward into the center, then disappeared. He came to sit next to the tallest of the chairs, in one not much shorter. Evidently, Xigbar was of high status around here.

Whoever was sitting in the highest throne, threw back his hood in…well, a prissy manner. The man shook his long white hair out of his jacket, then grinned at him. "Welcome," he said in a deep voice.

Light didn't trust his own voice to speak. His knees were already nearly knocking together in fear, if truth were to be told. He didn't want them to know he was a total coward right from the start. Fights with L were one thing. L didn't have supernatural abilities.

"I am pleased to announce another member to our ranks," The leader of the group continued in that deep, calm tone. He raised a hand and way up in the air above his head, the letters L-I-G-H-T formed. Then, an X was added to it, directly in the center. The letters spun around for a moment and when they stopped, a new word was formed.

Lixght.

Many grunts were heard and a bright, red-haired man said, "Gotta admit it, Xemnas, I'm not too crazy about that one."

Xemnas must've been the leader, for he frowned and nodded. "Yes, I agree." He gave the letters another spin and this time they formed 'Hixglit'. The frown became even deeper. "Your name doesn't seem to have many letters to work with," he said to Light.

Light considered his name for a moment, then said, "My English name might be a bit narrow, but try my Japanese one, Raito."

Xemnas nodded gratefully to him, then spun those letters and an X around. When they came to a halt, he smiled at the results. "I do believe we have a winner. Thus is your formal induction into the Organization. Member XV."

Aixort.

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I was so proud of myself when I came up with his Nobody, ^_^ But in third person form, Light is still Light (not Raito). Only the other members will call him his Nobody name.

Everyone in this chapter was pretty tame, since I'm kind of out of sorts with writing with Light after such a long break. But he and the other Org members will become sillier. Anywho, reviews appreciated!


	2. This Will Only Hurt a lot

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so before you gorge your eyes out on turkey and ham (or get falling down drunk off the spiked egg nog? Yes, I'm talking about _you_, Luxord!), I figured I'd upload the next chapter for ya! Enjoy!

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This Will Only Hurt…A Lot**

Light sat in his new throne with the others, listening as Xemnas explained what the objective of the Organization was. Simply put: to collect hearts to feed Kingdom Hearts. A quick glance around the room showed that most of the members were asleep. Guess they had to sit through this speech everytime a new member was added.

"So, next thing we need to do is find out what your power is," Xigbar said to Light after the meeting. "Come on down to the court yard and we'll work on that."

For some reason, those words set Light on edge.

When they got down to the courtyard, nearly the entire Organization was there waiting for him…as though this had been rehearsed. Seeing one member cloaked in black was a bit unnerving. 14 all at once could be cause for a full blown panic attack.

"Er…what are they here for?" Light asked Xigbar. It was pretty much official that the man was to oversee him until he'd settled in.

"They're here to help ya out with your powers," Xigbar grinned. His grin was also unsettling. In short, this entire thing gave Light the creeps. Did they normally just pick up random strangers off the street and induct them into the Organization?

"Aixort, over here please," Xemnas stepped forward and said. It was going to be awhile before he got used to that name. He walked closer to Light and the man nodded in approval…as though he'd made the right decision about something.

"Each member has an elemental power that they can command," Xemnas told him. "Most knew what it was before they joined the Organization, but you weren't given enough time to figure yours out. With that said, I believe I know how to make you bring out your…hidden talents."

Before Light could react, the man hit him with an energy wave, causing him to bowl over backwards.

"What kind of cheap shot—!" Light shouted at him. He stumbled, trying to get back on his feet.

"Attack back or you will die!" The man said, and rushed at him.

"Not the face!" Light screamed and sank to his knees.

Xemnas came up short and stared down with absolute disapproval. "You will be of no use to us if you cannot battle. Just ask number IX."

He pointed to a blonde man who huffed and said "Now that's just plain rude!"

Light got back up slowly. This was worse than a Russian hazing and he didn't even ask to join this group! But if he was going to be defeated, he refused to go out shamefully. He held up his two fists, ready to duke it out.

But instead, Xemnas snapped his fingers and a guy with long blue hair stepped up. He was no bigger than the Superior and actually seemed much calmer than him as well. Hopefully this guy would be a cakewalk.

"Go!" Xemnas ordered, commencing the battle.

In a speed quicker than Light could register, the man went from human to animal and was mauling him on the ground, teeth clamped on his arm and making growling noises as he shook his head back and forth fiercely.

"Down boy, down! Bad dog!" Light yelled at him and tried to hit his head, but Saix refused to let go. Finally the boy was able to draw back his hand and hit the rabid man on the side of his head. He let go with a whimper, like an abused pup.

What _were _these people! Laser guns, energy beams, feral men…Light was beginning to think he'd stepped into a really bad anime!

But then it occurred to him. No one here was even close to the definition of 'normal'. Light had seen shinigami, used the mighty powers of the Death Note and had seen the supernatural work before his eyes. So what made this any different? They seemed to believe he too had special powers and if he was going to survive his first day, it was time he started believing it too.

The dog freak guy was replaced by a young teenage girl with short black hair. "Hi!" she said in a cheerful voice. Aww, she was too cute.

Not! Before Xemnas could even tell them to go, she was already charging at him, swinging a—was that an overgrown key?—at him. Light dodged to the side with speeds he didn't know he possessed. Ahh, a shared trait of these Nobodies.

The girl swung again and caught him on the side of his temple, making the world spin. "Ha, you're weak!" she taunted.

Light feinted like he was severely injured, keeping his head bowed. She came closer to inspect the wound and that's when Light finally struck. "Time to…um…die!" _Wow, your first attack and this is the lame line you come up with? _He held up his palm and a white flash was released. It hit the girl square in the face and slid her several yards across the concrete. He felt a sick satisfaction when he heard the rest of the Org behind them murmur "Daaaaaaaaaamn!"

A blonde boy about the girl's age ran out and cradled her head in his lap. "It's okay Xion, we'll avenge you!"

"All I ask…is that…you remember me…" she said weakly, reaching out a shaky hand. The blonde grasped it and nodded tearfully.

"Poppet, tiger, get off the field!" Xigbar shouted to them. Xion got up as though she'd never been injured and walked quite briskly back to the others. Was the Organization a theater group in their past life?

The next person to step up was a monstrous man with red hair and features so severe, you'd think he'd been born sucking on lemons. In his hand was something that looked like a wad of fabric…and needles. With a heavy sigh at being disturbed, he put the materials in a large pocket and began walking forward.

Light quickly stepped back, nearly running away. Now how the hell did he use his abilities before? Maybe this actually required training (and not a hazing) in order to work. The man kept advancing and procured a weapon that looked like a gigantic pipe wrench. Oh, now this was just wrong!

Adrenaline coursed through his veins as his mind frantically raced with ideas to avoid injury. In a last-ditch move to protect himself, his body acted on its own and he raised his hands to the sky.

"Cosmic Chaos!" he yelled for an unknown reason. But everyone looked up as the clouds darkened. Violent lightning flashed, then the heavens were ripped apart as a shower of meteors rained down on them. Rather than running indoors, the group conjured shields around themselves and just stood watching the weather that was reminiscent of Armageddon.

Light, sadly, hadn't learned to make a shield too and instead fell victim to his own attack. A meteor landed feet away, causing the ground to shake and large particles of concrete to hit him. In an effort to control the chaos, he waved a hand in the air and the clouds dispersed, again revealing Kingdom Hearts.

The area fell silent in awe. Then, Xemnas began clapping and slowly, the others did too. He'd done it! He was finally one of them! He was…about to be pummeled by the huge guy.

The last thing Light saw before he blacked out was an arm the size of a log coming toward his face and then felt an agonizing pain that tore at his soul.

He woke up in the infirmary. A long blonde-haired man was impatiently tapping a foot, as though waiting for this moment. "Good, you're up. You only have a broken nose, so there's no need to stay here."

"Er…thanks for the clean bill of heath, doc," Light mumbled. He touched his face and regretted it when pain shot through his nerves. "Did the big lug have to break it?"

"Lexaeus…does that to everyone," the scientist said. Light blanched. What kind of welcoming present was that?

On the lab coat of the blonde he could see the name 'Vexen'. The good doctor Vexen (sarcasm) nudged him off the examination table and out the door. "Due to a potion I gave you through an IV, that nose should actually be healed in just a few hours. Just try not to sneeze." He seemed to think his little joke was hilarious and proceeded to laugh. It came off as a very eerie cackle, made no better by the door creepily closing behind him.

Light stumbled down the hall to his room, happy that it was on the same level. He practically melted into the bed, thankful for the soft sheets, proud of his meager accomplishments of the day and invigorated about surviving this ludicrous place.

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*sigh* Light got the powers I'd always wanted to give to my OC Nobody, the power over the heavens. But he claims he's a god, so it's befitting of him I suppose. Never gonna use that OC anyways, xD!

Well, again, happy Thanksgiving folks! And I…need to start on holiday homework!


	3. Lost

Nothing to say here except the story takes a new turn ^_^ Hope you guys enjoy it!

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Lost**

"Sooooo….is he dead?" Aizawa asked.

"Of course he's not dead! He's just…comatose," Soichiro snapped. But even he was unsure. The doctor couldn't place what was wrong with Light. No heartbeat and yet his chest still rose and fell like he was breathing. It was the strangest thing any of them had seen.

Soichiro had gotten the call about his son's collapse on campus only an hour ago. Without any explanation, he'd rushed out of the task force headquarters and come here, with the others following behind to find out what's the matter. He'd then phoned Sachiko with the news, but with the workday now winding down, evening traffic was thick. It'd be awhile before she could join him.

"This actually works to our advantage," L was saying as he sat beside Light, hunched up in his chair and licking a lollipop. "I still suspect Light of being Kira. With him incapacitated, we'll finally see once and for all if the killings stop."

Soichiro wanted to argue with him, but he was right. He wanted his sons' name cleared as quickly as possible and this was as good of an opportunity to do that as any. He reached out a hand to pat Light's leg, but suddenly the boy's body began to glow.

"Whoa!" Matsuda yelled in amazement. "Light must be holy! What a fitting name! What a fitting title!"

"No Light, don't go into the light!" Soichiro screamed, shaking his body.

"I knew the little fucker was Kira, goody-two-shoes my ass," Ide said derisively.

But like moths being drawn to a lamp, they all realized that they were taking steps toward the brightness. Or…was it actually enveloping them? That seemed more accurate because only seconds later, the entire room was washed in complete whiteness, making Mogi scream out, "My ocular nerves!"

Before the light died down, the first sound they could hear was the ocean. As the whiteness faded away, a blue sky became visible, then several seagulls circling the air above them. They realized they were standing on sand. A beach? A quick look around. Not another land form in sight.

They were stranded on an island.

"Where the hell did Light take us?" Aizawa muttered, peeling off his suit jacket from the heat. "Is this some sort of fantasy land of his?"

"Oh my god, we're gonna die!" Matsuda screamed. "Quick, we have to build a fire! Make a raft! Stock up on goods! Something!"

"Matsuda, calm down!" the chief yelled at him. For good measure, he gave his face a slap.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Always wanted to do that," Soichiro told him honestly, which made the younger man frown at him. "Anyways, at least you do have some valid points. The sun is waning so I wouldn't bother trying for a raft tonight. Instead, we should focus on shelter and food and making a fire. We'll worry about the other things tomorrow."

Taking the lead as usual, he took off his shoes and rolled up his pants legs. Discarding his suit jacket (the others following his example), he waded into the water. He stood stock-still for awhile before quickly reaching down and trying to snatch up a fish.

Of course he failed. Miserably.

The others copied him and for the longest time they had no success. Suddenly, Mogi managed to slap a brightly-colored fish out of the water. It landed with a plop on the shore and he gratefully made his way over to it.

But in the near silence, something sounded. A stomach growling. That's when the others realized they hadn't eaten lunch yet. Mogi froze and slowly turned toward them. They weren't looking at him but instead his catch.

In a flash, he wheeled around and began making a break back to the shore. The others came bounding up behind him. Ide grabbed his shoulders and threw him back, then made a mad dash for the food instead. Aizawa grabbed his arm and bit it fiercely, growling in the process. As Ide fought him off, L finally stood completely up and ran to the fish. Grabbing it in his hands, he was about to take a bite when he realized something.

"This isn't even edible! It's a puny tropical fish!" He chucked it back into the ocean with disgust and the fish thankfully swam away.

From the shadows of the cliffs of the island, a young girl was watching them. Who were these primitive men? They dressed in suites and ties yet fought with each other like beasts! Were these heartless? Should she tell Sora to exterminate them?

The men sat down on the beach, exhausted from their fight. Hungry…so hungry. Must…find…nourishment…hey! Matsuda rolled off of his back where he was laying and pointed up at something. "Say, what does that look like on that tree over there?"

The others followed his gaze and saw large yellow objects hanging off the palm trees. "Lemons?" Soichiro ventured. But these were much too large for a lemon. Well…there was a lot of biological engineering going on these days. Who said a lemon couldn't grow as large as a coconut now?

Matsuda got up and stumbled hungrily over to the tree. It was high up and there wasn't any way to get a footing on the tree with its smooth bark. Instead, he went back and grabbed his shoes. Throwing them up, the first missed completely. The second one hit a fruit, but didn't knock it loose.

The others got up too and began chucking their shoes at the tree. Kairi watched them with amusement. Silly men, they should've just done a trinity! Everyone knows that's the easiest way to reach things in high places!

Finally, someone knocked a fruit down and the savagery continued. Aizawa nearly broke L's hand when he reached out for the fruit and Soichiro and Ide were rolling in the sand, throwing blows at each other's faces.

With everyone preoccupied, Matsuda easily reached over and took a bite of the star-shaped fruit. Whoa. It was…sweet. Like every Starburst flavor rolled into one. It was great!

"Hey guys, you have to try this!" he said. Everyone froze. Matsuda broke off several pieces and handed them out to them. "This stuff's delicious! Wow, Japan needs to export these!"

They each took a bite, juice dribbling down their chins. Oh their god, it was heaven! Revitalized, they again began tossing their shoes at the tree to get more.

And Kairi could only watch in horrified silence. All of those men…had _shared the paopu fruit with each other! _It was gross! It was beyond gross! Sora and Riku had to be notified at once!

She found her friends in their secret cave. Sora was trying to turn one wall into a full mural, with he and Riku battling with wooden swords. Actually, the painting of Riku was lying on the ground, perhaps dead if the pool of blood coming out his head was anything to go by. The Sora in the mural had a crown on his head while holding his Keyblade up in the air in victory.

The real Riku seemed oblivious to this, as he was trying to do tricks with a new yo-yo he'd gotten. Several large knots adorned his head, having failed multiple times in doing the Around the World stunt and clocking himself in the noggin instead.

"Guys, you have to come see this!" Kairi half whispered to them, as though afraid the men on the beach would hear her. "There's these guys…nearly battling to the death over fish and paopu fruit!"

The boys paused and looked at each other, then burst out laughing. "Fish and paopu fruit, Kairi?" Sora said. "Fighting over an ocean full of fish and a fruit that's grown nearly year around since we don't really have winters? C'mon, these guys can't be that big of morons."

"It's true!" Kairi huffed. "Come see!" She turned around and stalked off, leaving Sora to follow and Riku to join them, but not before giving a very hard roll of his eyes.

"Down there!" Kairi pointed, back at her advantage point on the cliff. "I don't know where they came from. I just saw them biting each other and trying to get to a very tiny fish one guy caught. Not even enough for two bites."

Right now, the task force was lying in the sun, stomachs full and blissfully sleepy. It was quite the weird sight.

"Hmm. Well, as long as they keep the fighting amongst themselves, we should be fine," Riku said. "We'll just watch the situation for now. If they end up being a problem, Sora and I will handle them."

"Yeah, we promised to protect you," Sora told her. "That's why you gave this to me." He held up a paopu-shaped good luck charm.

"That's…not mine," Kairi said, looking at it. Then her eyes flashed with anger. "So, what girl have you been seeing to get that? Huh? Huuuh?"

"Hey, isn't that Namine's?" Riku asked.

"Why the hell do you have Namine's charm?" Kairi screamed, throwing complete caution to the wind of the men hearing her.

"Well, uh, see…um. She let me borrow it, and…" Sora's memory was wiped away from the events of Castle Oblivion so he wasn't sure as to just why he had this charm from her.

_Heh-heh, guess he likes me better, _Namine said to Kairi telepathically from wherever she was at. The redhead gave a scream of rage. "That's it, bitch! Get out here so I can fight you!"

Riku and Sora watched on with shocked expressions. Talk about your internal conflicts. As Kairi continued to rage war with her Nobody, the other two just quietly tiptoed away from her.

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As a side-story, I figured it'd be interesting to use the task force. It's always lovely to have them go through some sort of hell or another. As for Mello, Near, Matt or even Beyond (my usual main DN characters) being in this, I don't think so.

Although…them and KH _would _be interesting…shall we vote on it then? Up to you guys. I'm still creating this as I go, xD!


	4. The Funny Farm

Nearly done with college finals (I'll no longer be 'fresh meat' next semester, whoo-hoo!) so I have some writing time on my hands. To show for it, here's a long chapter to make up for the absence.

I've decided that I will _not _feature the Wammy kids, so we're back to good ole' Light here; the task force is more of a sub-plot, as I said. We'll check up on them periodically to see if they're still alive or not ^_^ Till then, read this!

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The Funny Farm**

"Rise and shine, Sleepin' Beauty! Time to get rid of your newbie virginity!" Light felt his blanket rudely ripped from around him and shivered at the cold that hit his body. Above him stood Xigbar. Rather…above him _hung _Xigbar. The man was standing on the ceiling. Light screamed and scrambled away.

"Holy hell! You can't just…how are you doing that?" He leaned forward cautiously and poked his cheek. The man frowned in irritation, but this only fueled Light's curiosity and he continued to poke at him.

"Wouldja stop that? I'm real, damnit!" He swatted the hand away, then disappeared for a moment. When he reabsorbed, he was standing beside him. "Now, we have some things to do today and if there's one thing I hate it's someone that's slow, physically and mentally."

Light bristled at the comment. "I'll have you know that I'm the number one student in Japan. I was also a junior champion at tennis three years straight and my father is the head of the—"

"Whoa ho ho! Look who's stroking his ego mighty hard this morning!" Xigbar threw back his head and laughed a shinigami cackle. "Listen kid, I don't care if you were the king of Daisyland (like that pink-haired freak I recruited must've been). You're here now and those credentials mean squat. You're number _fifteen._ That's low. That's beyond low! And you wanna know the real fucked up part?"

Light gulped but nodded despite himself.

"There is no moving up in ranks. Where you're at now is where you'll always be at. How ya like them apples?"

Two things happened then. One, Light died a little inside. Actually, no. He died _completely _inside. Er…at least, as much as a person without a heart can…you know what? Forget it.

The second thing that happened was Ryuk appeared. "Did somebody say apples?"

Light had completely forgotten about him in the whirlwind events that followed after his induction. He quickly snapped his eyes back to the other man to not give away that he'd seen the shinigami.

"Anywho kid, get up, get dressed, and meet me on the next floor down in twenty minutes. We'll get some food in ya and then we'll get going." Xigbar vanished faster than a Naruto ninja.

Light immediately turned his attention back to Ryuk. "What the hell are you doing here? Do you know what this place is? What do they want from me?"

"Heh heh heh…I'm actually just as clueless as you, Light," the creature said. It flew over to the bed and settled down on the end. "Say, that guy said apples, didn't he? Got any?"

"Ryuk, I don't even have my bearings, much less an apple." He got up sighing, straightening up his bed on habit from home. "So, how did you find me?"

"You still have the Death Note, remember? I can track you anywhere so long as you have it. Oh, and for the record, watch what you say about it. You about gave ownership of the Death Note to that man last night. I heard you."

Light paused. "What? When?" Then he thought about it. He had told Xigbar when he first appeared back in that field that if what he'd wanted was the Death Note, he could have it. It wasn't a proper relinquish though, spoken hastily out of fear, thus he still controlled the book. But it was close.

"Oh…I remember."

"Careless of you," Ryuk chuckled.

"Tch."

"So, can I get an apple?"

"No! Do I look like I have apples on me?"

"…that man mentioned something about breakfast to you…"

"Then go ask him for an apple."

"Maybe I will. I have an extra Death Note, I'll just let him touch it and then he can see me. Hell, I'll let everyone here see me—"

"Alright, alright, I get the picture! I'll try to get you a damn apple." The bed set up, Light sat back down and dragged his backpack over. Within it, he found the second Death Note. Most of the pages were filled, but there was still plenty left to write on. "Stuck at number fifteen, am I? A fate nearly worse than death! If I can't be number one, no one can!" Xigbar was most prominent in his mind, thus he wrote his name down first.

But Light knew something was wrong the instant Ryuk began that laugh of his. It was the same laugh he'd heard when Naomi Misora first outsmarted him in telling him her true name. Light thought about what might've been wrong in this case.

Forty seconds passed and he strained his ears to see if anything out in the halls had happened. Silence. Nobody was yelling or screaming for help, the usual pandemonium that happened when he'd just killed someone. No…this attempt was botched…

Ryuk's laughing grew its loudest yet and he fell over on the bed, seriously laughing his ass off "Oh man, you're-you're an idiot! Even _I _know what's wrong here!"

"Well then, I'd greatly appreciate you saying so rather than mocking me!" Light snapped at him.

The shinigami got out a few more chuckles before speaking. "What happened to you when you first got here, hm?"

"Er…I went through a hazing. A rather…brutal hazing…"

"No, before that! What happened?"

"My induction? They all just sat around and played with the letters—" Oh. Oh, Light felt dumb.

But of course! Light's name had been changed to Aixort. Why wouldn't any of the other names be fakes as well? But all he had to do was unscramble the names, take out the X that had been added (for he figured that everyone's names had been created in the same manner his had) and he'd have Xigbar's true identity.

Instead of meeting the man downstairs as he'd told him to, Light spent the time playing word games with himself. He'd written down roughly ten combinations of the letters and still no signs of distress had been heard from the castle.

Ryuk looked like he was getting quite bored and just told him, "You forgot a last name, idiot."

"Would it kill you to tell it to me?" Light said back.

"Actually, it would," Ryuk grinned. "Now, how 'bout that apple?"

Half an hour after Xigbar summoned him, Light trudged downstairs. Immediately Two was on him like white on rice.

"Man, I told you to be down here ages ago! You have some gigantic balls defying a superior like that!"

The breakfast table clattered to a halt in silence and a blue-haired boy actually gagged a bit in his napkin. Lexaeus reached across and patted him hard on the back before he choked.

Xigbar lowered his voice and snagged Light closer. "Listen up, _Aixort, _if you wanna survive here, you're gonna have to get rid of that superiority complex you're havin'. I'm a nice guy; you actually couldn't have gotten a better person to show you around. But you have to level with me too. Follow my orders and you'll have a dandy of a time here. But keep bullshitting me and I'll show you why they call me the Freeshooter."

Naturally, Light began to tremble. But not in fear. He was enraged. It was finally sinking in that he was an underlying, not to one person, but fourteen people. The bottom of the bottom. The cesspool of the Organization.

He was even the teenager's bitch!

Xigbar shoved him down into a random spot at the table where he mumbled a "Help yourself to the food," before walking to his own spot near the head of the group.

Sooner than Light could start filling up a plate, a large form came to stand behind him. He tilted his head back to see a man with thick sideburns and extremely long dreads hanging down his back.

"Name's Xaldin, number Three. I'm basically the chef around here. If you have any requests for dinner, submit them to me and I'll see what I can do." The man spoke with an Irish lilt to his voice and Light held back a drunk joke.

"I've had a slight craving for sukiyaki," he offered instead. The man's eyes widened in surprise and some sort of recognition lit his face.

"_Oh, you speak Japanese too! It's actually my native homeland,_" Xaldin told him in Nihongo (Japanese). "And I love a good sukiyaki." He flashed him a conspiratorial wink.

While he was glad that someone else here spoke his first language, he was dying to question Xaldin about a few things. He bit his lip though. _Be polite, Light! Proper, good-natured Light Yagami. Don't do anything that might piss him off—_"Why the heck do you look and sound like that?"

_Damnit, Light! What the hell did your conscious __**just**__ tell you?_

Xaldin paused for a moment and Light was sure he was going to beat the snot out of him. It was only at that moment that he realized he was also holding a blue lance in his hand. Hopefully he'd bring the spear down on his cranium and his death be swift and painless.

Instead, Xaldin chuckled. "Heh, I was picked on a bit all through school, especially when I tell people that I'm a Japanese-Jamaican-Irish-Jew."

Light's eyes bugged out of his head in the most unattractive way ever. Sort of like L's staring when he's wanting to unnerve people. "Is that…is that even possible?"

"Ha! I never said it was all in my immediate family. But it's there. So when I took standardized tests in school, I'd just mark 'other' for race (not that they really need to know that info, pricks)."

"Uhh…yeah. I see." Light slowly turned back around in his seat. While this was possibly the most fascinating thing he'd ever heard, he didn't want it escalating into something he'd regret.

From the table, a man with a short blonde haircut stood up and draped an arm across Xaldin's shoulders "That Irish in ya is why you know how to serve up one _hell _of a whiskey, ain't that right, Xaldy boy?" The man said. He was clearly drunk. At only seven a.m!

"Luxord, you'd drink anything that's alcoholic and call it great so your palate isn't really a good standard to go by," Xaldin told him, narrowing his eyes.

"Nuh-uh!" Luxord defended, throwing his arm out in a dramatic gesture and nearly falling over with it. "I'll never drink a…marg…Margaret…"

"Margarita?" Xaldin supplied.

"Yeah, that! Because everyone knows those are for _fags_!"

Marluxia, who was about to take a sip of something pink with an umbrella in it, set the glass down with an angry clink and scowled at the Brit.

"Yeah, whatever, you'd drink that too if placed in front of you," Xaldin muttered and dragged him back to his seat. The instant Luxord sat down next to Marluxia, he picked up his abandoned glass and downed it. "See? I rest my case." Once he turned to leave, Luxord and Marluxia began squabbling with each other, both slurring their words.

If there was anything good that could be said about being number Fifteen, Light thought, it was that at least he wasn't the most dysfunctional member. He'd have to ensure that his sanity didn't slip while he was around these people. Which, he already knew, was going to take some major work!

* * *

Not sure what to say here so I'll just let you guys review, xD!


	5. Abbot and Costello

Slightly unrelated to anything, I was reading on Wiki about the Organization (random boredom?) and at the bottom of the page when talking about the overall reception of the group, they said that Xion was voted the "Best New Character" for the 2009 Nintendo Power Awards. Late congrats to you Xion ^_^

Yes, I know this chapter is long. Forgive me. Lengthy chapters for me means it probably runs around a bit. Bleh. But Light needed to have his first mission so here we go. Hope you enjoy!

**

* * *

Abbot and Costello**

Everything was quiet. _Too _quiet. Watari had driven L to the hospital to check on the young Yagami boy but the detective had allowed him to return home to prepare dinner for everyone.

And yet, not a soul was here. The sun had long since set and here he was, not a person in sight. They should've returned by now. Most peculiar indeed. But this meant no one to clean up after. Especially Matsuda. That man still lived with his mother and didn't know the pressures of cleaning up his own area because mummy-dearest did it for him.

But it also meant that he didn't have to cook for L. A buffet of snacks always had to be ready for the man to eat while he worked; it was one of the tasks the man had stressed upon him. But not tonight! Haha, not tonight!

"No cupcakes or brownies or doughnuts with frosting! Ice cream and Pocky and over-sweet coffee! Strawberry shortcake and fruit melon rings! These are a few of his favorite things!" He began a dance-step on the tiled floor, copying some sort of musical.

"When that bell rings, and he wants something, it makes me _so _mad! I simply remember _my _favorite things! And then I don't feel sooooo baaaaad!" He sang, twirling around.

And thus Watari danced the night away…

~.~.~.~.~

Xigbar had failed to inform Light where they were heading today. As it was, he'd dragged him to a world that was currently in the midst of their winter solstice judging by the deep snow on the ground. They came out on top of a mountainside in an alcove where any hikers wouldn't see them.

"Ahh, love that mountain winter air!" Xigbar said happily as he wrapped a red scarf around his neck. He glanced over at the boy, then asked, "Wow Aixort. Are ya cold?"

Light, who was shivering and rubbing his arms, trying to quiet his chattering teeth, threw him a glare that should've killed him. "I-I'm not g-going to dignify th-that with an answer."

"Aw, man up! Boy, they treat you kids wherever the hell you're from like a bunch of pansies! You know, that was my first impression on you; no balls."

"No balls, Xigbar?" Light asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"No balls at all," Xigbar confirmed. With a clap on his back, he walked forward, throwing over his shoulder, "Glad we had this talk!"

_Yes…it was quite thrilling, _Light thought darkly. Like a faithful lemming, he followed after the man who had walked to the edge of the mountain and crouched down. Far below them was a village. "What's our mission here?"

Xigbar grinned. "Superior wants us to unleash a heartless on this place so that it'll attract our little Keyblade friend. He comes, defeats the heartless and thus that heart goes to Kingdom Hearts."

Light frowned and looked around him. "Alright…but how do you make a heartless?"

"Nice question there, Skip! You gotta turn somethin' evil. Something that might've just been 'eh' needs to become 'holy frickin' moley that's bad!' Catch my drift?"

"…yeah?"

"Good! Starts with a little infiltration though. Might be an idiot around here that can do the trick. Usually we keep things to only creatures but I've been itchin' for a human sacrifice for awhile."

Light scooted over away from him a bit. "Uh-huh."

The Freeshooter stood up and cocked his guns. "Let's git 'er done!"

_Oh god, no! _Light mentally screamed.

What they thought was an incredibly small village really turned out to be an army camp. Actually, Xigbar already knew this. With _both_ of his eyes, Light had failed to pick up on it.

The place wasn't modern by any means. It looked like a scene from his history books at school with officers still riding horses and soldiers wearing armor over their threadbare peasant clothing. Rows of tents lined the field, taking up the majority of the space.

"So, where to start?" The boy asked. Something told him that this venture seemed quite unpromising.

"Well, if I had to guess—" Xigbar started, but was cut off when a man rode up to them on his white stallion. His red cape beheld him as the general.

Pointing a harsh finger at them, he yelled something in Chinese. Light's eyes widened in shock; he figured this place was going to be as foreign as The World That Never Was. But finally, a small taste of the familiar!

It was then that he noticed that Xigbar was eyeing him. He glanced over at the man to see a sort of desperate expression on his face. It also seemed expectant. Xigbar quickly flicked his eyes up to the other man and back, tilting his head a fraction in that _you know what to do _sort of way.

"Oh, you think that because we're both Asian, I can understand him?" Light scoffed. "There's a _reason _why Japanese is spoken in Japan and Chinese spoken in China, asshat."

Xigbar sighed and muttered, "You're _so _useless!" To the general he spouted, "Ramen, um…chicken chow mien…Hong Kong…Jackie Chan—"

Light slapped a hand over Xigbar's mouth and gave the general an apologetic smile. Speaking in what bit of Chinese he knew, he said, _"Please excuse my dumbass friend. He is an ignorant pig farmer and knows not what he says."_

Light didn't understand what the man replied back with, but his finger pointed to a line of people that were waiting outside another tent. Those that exited out carried a small bowl. It seemed Xigbar's request for food hadn't gone completely misunderstood…

Grabbing the man, he dragged him over to the line to wait with everyone else. "You need to have a talk with Xaldin to learn about cultural sensitivity," he whispered in his ear.

"As if! It got us somewhere, didn't it? I say that went over smoothly. But I gotta ask, what did you tell him?"

"…I asked where the bathroom was. It's the only thing I knew how to say."

Xigbar eyed the food line. "Then your Chinese sucks sour grapes if he sent us _here._"

Light could deal with that criticism.

They waited for what felt like hours out there in the cold. Neither was exactly hungry after having already eaten but they needed a bowl to join wherever the other men were grouping off to eat. This would give them a place to scope out a person that might be able to be turned into a heartless.

They were next to enter the food tent next but froze when a loud horn blared through the air. The entire camp fell silent. To the east, the horn blared again, sounding louder as the sentry rode closer on his horse. Behind him rode another man shouting out, "The Huns are coming! Prepare for battle!"

"B-battle?" Light said weakly. Nothing was said about _them _fighting today…

Xigbar was thankfully thinking the same thing. "This isn't our war to fight, kid. Screw the initial plan; we'll create our heartless from something else." He grabbed his sleeve and pulled him out a side exit of the camp. About a hundred yards up, an opening in the mountain rock offered a cave for them to hide and Xigbar ducked inside.

"We'll just wait for all of those guys to kill each other, then sneak on out of here," he said, walking in further. With a regretful sigh, he added, "So much for my human sacrifice…"

He trailed off when Light didn't respond and looked around. Xigbar had failed to notice when a man with black, stringy hair clamped a hand on Light's mouth and held a dagger to his throat. In a guttural voice, he said something, then pushed the blade deeper into the flesh.

Light whimpered pathetically. Shan Yu. Second to Attila the Hun, this man was notoriously ruthless. Well, if he was going to die, at least he'd die a martyr of history.

The man demanded something else of Xigbar, nodding to his person. Light figured he was looking for money or anything of value, but the Nobody scratched his head and offered a loopy grin.

"Listen buddy, I don't understand a word you're sayin'. So, maybe you'll understand this." He raised one of his guns and aimed it at the hand holding the knife. "Let the runt—"

_Runt!_

"—Go and I'll spare you the embarrassment of losing a finger or two."

Shan Yu was silent for a moment before screaming more gibberish (to them) out. With a furious head gesture at Two, a large hawk rose up off of his shoulder, wasting no time in aiming directly for Xigbar's one good eye.

"Target practice!" Xigbar shouted gleefully and with easy precision, he shot the bird from the sky. "C'mon, tell me you have another! That wasn't fun enough!"

Instead, the man let loose a screech of rage. Light knew he was going to be the reparation for the bird and used that window of screaming to step on the man's foot, elbow him in his side, punch him in the nose, then land a quick kick to the groin.

"Heey, not bad kid! Wher'dya learn that?"

"_Miss Congeniality,_" Light said, backing away from Shan Yu's crumpling form.

"…right, sorry I asked…Look, things seem a bit worse than I anticipated. But I think I have in mind a place that we can still finish this mission off at." He cast open a dark portal, waiting for Light to go through first.

"Wait…we have one of the greatest villains in Eastern history right here at our feet and begging for mercy and we're not gonna take advantage of it? Xigbar, we could be written down in history as heroes!"

"Nah, not big enough for me. If I kill someone, I want it to be like, Hitler or something. Luxord's being a bastard though and won't take me back in time to do it." Without waiting for a response, he grabbed Light and shoved him into the corridor of darkness.

When they came out on the other side, they found themselves in front of what was clearly the Imperial Palace. "Whoa…gonna turn the Emperor into a heartless?" Light asked.

"Heh, that's actually not a half-bad idea. But no. I seem to remember a dragon of some sort plaguing this area. We'll use that as our bait for our Keyblade buddy."

"We couldn't do that from the beginning?" Light muttered.

"You always gotta be a wisecrack?"

Light smirked. "Only when you give me the fuel."

Suddenly above them, a dark shadow covered the ground. Looking up, the sunlight was blotted out as a large creature floated across the sky. It made a slow, lazy turn in the air, then spotted the two figures below. With a growl, it angled into a dive and headed for them.

"We're gonna be eaten by that gigantic caterpillar!" Light shouted out, turning to run away.

Xigbar quickly stopped him by grabbing his cloak. "_That _is our target. And you have powers, use 'em!" As the dragon swooped down, Xigbar pushed the boy and he was forced to jump into the air onto the back of the creature. Xigbar did as well and the beast flew off.

"Whoo! Man, if Xemnas allowed pets, I'd so cage this thing!"

"What would you feed it?" Light had to ask.

"Ha, your pathetic ass for one! Now, you need to infuse its heart with darkness. Touch it and pass on some of your energy."

"That wouldn't make me weaker?"

"Well…maybe. But if you fall off and die, we'll remember you in the Room of Transience at the castle. Now, take some of your power and touch its chest. Gonna have to scoot forward kid if you wanna make this work."

"Why me?" came the whine.

"You're up front! Dominant position."

"…_wha?_"

"Oh man, I vow never to do another mission with you after this!" Xigbar snatched his hand and infused it with some of his own energy. "There. Now if I were you, I'd pass that on to this thing lest it takes over your body. You can't handle my power."

Light wasn't sure if that was a subtle diss at him for being weaker or not, but he leaned forward on the dragon. As it whipped a sharp angle in the sky, he slipped off its back, only hanging on by the mane of its hair.

Thing is, nothing likes a 130 lbs nuisance latching on to something so sensitive as its _hair _and it began to lash about. Light saw Xigbar thrown into the air and disappeared in a flash. He landed far below him in the courtyard, watching the struggle in the sky.

Light tried to climb up the hair, but suddenly a large patch was ripped out. Uh-oh. The dragon screamed in pain, then looked down at him. "You know, that actually hurt! It's not time for my Brazilian yet."

"Wait, you _talk_?"

"It's Disney; all animals can talk."

Light would've fought with the creature about this point but his strength was weakening from having to hold on. Bringing up the hand infused with the energy, he made contact with the armor scales of what he could only hope was the heart area of the dragon. The darkness transferred out of him and with it, his will to hold on. Letting his arms go slack, he let go.

He had hoped Xigbar would catch him but that wasn't the Freeshooter's thing. Instead, he fell into more darkness, flailing and trying to control some part of his powers to ensure he didn't splat…wherever he was now falling.

As it turned out, he fell onto a couch somewhere and the portal closed up on the ceiling he was looking at.

"Thank me later," Xigbar chuckled above him, then pulled him to an upright position. "Skippy here wasn't too terribly bad. Showed that he can at least get the job done," he said to the room at large, where a few of the members were also seated.

"Great, you're back in time for lunch!" Xaldin said happily. "My Super Sonic Chili is world renowned!"

"Um, yeah, gotta watch my figure," Axel said, rubbing a hand over his flat stomach self-consciously.

Without so much as a blink, Xaldin telekinetically raised one of his lances and flung it in the redhead's direction. Missing him by only inches, it came to rest in the couch behind him.

"…On second thought, set me out a plate!" Axel quickly corrected himself. Xaldin nodded his approval and walked off.

The others headed to the kitchen too, but Xigbar gave him a quick pat on the shoulder for emphasis to his previous words. Light felt himself swell with pride—which he hoped you didn't need a heart to accurately feel.

With renewed vigor, he joined them in the kitchen to conquer one more foe for the day; Xaldin's chili!

* * *

Props to Death Note Abridged from Team DN; I admittedly used a line from them (most of you probably don't even know what it was, xD!).


	6. You've Got a Friend in Me

So, hope everyone had a delightful Christmas, eh? Mine was…quiet. Guess we weren't really in the festive spirit this year, xD!

Anywho, this chapter doesn't exactly expand the plot for the Nobodies, but it does introduce more characters to Light. I suppose that in itself can be considered plot development though…

Alrightie, read it an enjoy it!

**

* * *

You've Got a Friend In Me**

Lunch thankfully wasn't a disastertastrophe as Light had suspected it would be and everyone left the table full and happy. He hated to say this but Xaldin's cooking was growing on him, perhaps just a bit moreso than his mother's. Lately, Sachiko's cooking had become…dull and lifeless. Ever since his father had taken to practically living at the task force headquarters to constantly assist L in catching Kira, the woman's mood had been declining. When she smiled, it was clearly fake and though she tried to stay chipper, he and Sayu could easily see through it. It made both children not want to be in the house with her…which only helped to worsen her depression.

But right now, someone was speaking to him and judging by the very annoyed look on their face, they'd been trying to get his attention for awhile. Light dragged himself back to the present to notice a boy about his age with slightly bluish hair that fell to cover one of his eyes. "Get up, Aixort, I'm to show you your chores," the boy said shortly, crossing his arms.

"…Chores? I have to do chores here?" Light actually spat the word. At home, his mom did all the cleaning. She said it gave her great joy; but Light knew better. It was to keep her mind off of her husband's absence. Well, who was he to deny her what fix she could get? He instead would stay out of her way, thus not cleaning much else beyond his own bedroom.

Now this kid here was demanding he clean up. Light wasn't too pleased at the thought. "What rank are you?" he asked.

The single visible eye narrowed and the lips pressed to a thin line. "Six. One of the original _founding _members. As it was then and is now, the most junior of the members does dish duty. That would be _you._"

Something about the way he said 'you' made Light want to slap him. Hard. What a condescending bastard!

"You may address me as Zexion. Now, you clear the table and I'll go prepare the dish water." The boy turned on a heel and stalked over to the sink.

Light knew what the problem here was. This boy thought too highly of himself, just like he did. Two similar personalities clashing and rubbing at each other until chaff. This is how he knew he wasn't likely to get along with Six. Getting up from his spot, he started stacking the leftover bowls from the chili but paused when he noticed a cute girl about the same age as Xion and Roxas still sitting and eating. She glanced up from her food and gave him a sweet smile.

"Hi! I'm Namine. Don't mind me, I always have a big appetite. Say…any more food in the pot?" She pointed a finger at the dish in the middle of the table that had held the meal.

"Er…no…" Light mumbled. How many bowls had this girl already eaten? And yet she still looked like a toothpick. "Say, you're not in the regular attire like us. Are you part of this Organization?"

The girl picked the bowl up and began to lick it out like a dog. "Nope. Well…yes. But I'm not a member; I don't have a number. I just have powers that they've found useful so they kept me. Used to be I was their servant but the Superior took pity on me and had Axel bring me here to this castle."

When she put the bowl down, her face was covered in smears. "Say, what's that look for? Was it something I said?"

_It was _**everything** _you said! _"No. It's nothing. Just…you got off to an…unusual start." That's the understatement of the year.

The girl gave him another vibrant smile. "Uncle Xemmy—that's what I call him now—really is nice to me…er, whenever he doesn't forget I'm here. He gets so caught up commanding the Organization that he forgets I live here now. Happy Roxas and Xion and Repliku—(_Repliku? _Light thought)—don't forget me. They're the reason I'm able to eat at all! Although it might be a bit later from everyone else…"

"Uh-huh. I see," Light mumbled. So, another awkward strike against these Nobodies. And yet, such power they all beheld…it was almost enough to really make him ask for the shinigami eyes to kill them all off and behold the power of Kingdom Hearts for himself. He'd simply write that the kids memories were erased and let them live long lives; no need in killing the innocent. They were the future to his new world after all.

But as it was, he'd sent Ryuk back to Japan…wherever the hell Japan was in comparison to this place. The shinigami had taken the Death Note with him and in his absence, Ryuk would continue Kira's work. The world must be aware at all times of him passing…you know what? Even he was tired of saying 'divine judgment'. It was cool the first fifty times but the fifty-first would be the straw to break the camel's back.

The little girl daintily wiped her mouth on her napkin (to counter her savage eating habits) and put the bowl on the counter with the others. Giving Zexion a smile too, she skipped out of the kitchen to go…play with dolls or something.

Or annoy the hell out of Kairi as she seemed to love to do as a past-time.

"If you're done flirting with underage girls, there are dishes to be done," came that dry voice. Light decided that if he indeed did get the shinigami eyes, Zexion was going to be the first to go. He went over to the counter and grudgingly began to scrub out a bowl.

"Why don't you guys have a dishwasher?" he grumbled. With as much money as these people seemed to be throwing around, that should've been a rather simple appliance to buy.

"We _did _have one," Zexion told him, actually drying the dishes and putting them up. "But…Nine broke it."

Ahh, the infamous Nine. Looked like everything Nine did or touched, it either broke or he screwed up royally. "What did he do?"

"Nine controls water. Instead of letting the dishwasher do the work of cleaning things on its own, he decided he'd give it a 'boost'. Infusing the machine with his own abilities, it had an overload from water pressure." Zexion gave a wistful sigh, closing his eyes. "He picked a fine time to finally practice his powers. Any other time that boy is as stubborn as a mule."

Light tucked that information in the back for later. There was a chink in the chain now, a weak member. Without everyone standing strong together, the structure would crumble. He just had to figure out how he would do it…

"Anyway, I'm sure you know how to do this," Zexion spoke up, looking at the plate in his hands. "You can finish the rest. I would like to get back to reading my Stephen Hawking." He put the dish away, gracefully wiping his hands on a towel before walking toward the exit.

"Wait! You read Stephen Hawking? Do you like him?" Light couldn't help but be slightly intrigued.

"Well…some of his viewpoints are slightly unorthodox but it's truly remarkable that he has such a brilliant mind," Zexion confided.

"What about his theories on practical relativity?" Light pressed, his voice rising. "Wasn't that quite impressive?"

Zexion let a smirk flicker on his face. "Yes, very true. But I loved the speech he gave on nanodynamics and force field compacitors. Really wish I could've been there in person."

Light shook his head, grinning. "You know, I once read an article about the possibility of man being able to travel outside of this galaxy to attempt to discover life beyond our planet. They suggested that with enough gigawatts and hydrocarbonate, we might be able to in as early as 2030."

"I read that too!" Zexion said, his irreverent demeanor slipping. "I was really astounded by the notion of building a biofortified insulation capsule!"

"With dual engine polycarbon magnomitors!"

"And an iron acceleration thingamajig!"

Light and Zexion gave startled gasps at the same time, covering their mouths with their hands. "Oh…my…god…!" Zexion squeaked.

"I…I think I love you!" Light whispered.

With a cry of joy, they ran toward each other and clasped hands. "Aixort!"

"Zexy!" The other squealed in a very girly voice.

"You _must _come to my room! I have so many newspaper clippings and magazine articles and—ah! It's so nice to finally meet someone my own age who actually _appreciates _the wonders of science!" Zexion gushed.

"Totally! But…I have to finish the dishes," Light mumbled, his bubble of joy beginning to deflate.

"Oh, those? Pfft. Here." Zexion waved his hand and in an instant, the kitchen was completely clean. "There, problem solved."

"Er…Zexion, what's your ability?" Light thought to ask.

The other boy looked down at his nails, refusing to meet those expectant eyes. "Meh. I'm just an illusionist."

"_Just?"_

"Alright, so the kitchen's a fake!" Zexion yelled, throwing his hands up. "But the illusion will buy some time. If they actually paid me, maybe I'd be more inclined to do a better job."

"…You're…you're _evil,_" Light couldn't help but chuckle.

Zexion shrugged. "Well, they don't call me the Cloaked Schemer for nothing. Now come on, I have a really cool article I want to show you!" With that, he grabbed Light's hand and pulled him off toward his room.

What the two failed to realize was that Axel had been standing at the other end of the kitchen the entire time, only meaning to get a quick swig of milk from the carton. Instead, he'd been privy to their love-confessions. He shuddered in disgust. An alliance between this new guy and Zexion couldn't be good. He'd make sure to keep an eye on them.

With that thought, he took a long drink from the carton and was about to put it back in when someone's screaming stopped him.

"It's been you!" They yelled from behind.

Axel spluttered and spat out half the milk, the white running down is chin and shirt. He turned around slowly to see a very pissed-off Saix. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Axel, I just saw you wrap your lips around it! It is exactly what it looks like!"

Axel paused for a moment, then held the carton out. "Want some?"

Saix walked forward and grabbed it. Pulling a Sharpie marker out of his pocket, he scribbled across the side 'Axel's Milk'. "There, it's yours. Happy? Now you're free to drink out of it as much as you want."

Axel smiled at the milk, but the smile was wrong. Those green eyes had slanted in that ever-mysterious way they had and the grin on his face was too sharp and eager. Completely dropping the milk to the floor, he whipped around and began pulling more things out of the fridge. Marluxia's orange juice, a can of soda that Roxas had already drunk out of, Lexaeus' prune juice—ugh. Axel took all of these and began drinking them, trying to get everything labeled in his name.

"Oh no you don't!" Saix cursed, and grabbed Axel's hands behind his back. With no way to fight, he shoved the man against the fridge, pinning him there.

Just then, Roxas came into the room. He froze at the sight of them, his blue eyes close to popping out of his head and his mouth froze in a huge O. Axel's face was against the fridge door, arms being held behind him by Saix, who was standing behind him and pressing his weight into the redhead. It was very…_suggestive._

Saix and Axel froze as well and looked at him. In unison they yelled, "This is not what it looks like!"

"Eyes…scarred…completely scarred…nightmares…" Roxas mumbled, twitching as he turned around and left. "Too much information…_way _too much information…"

Saix released Axel and they watched him go. "Will he be okay?" Seven asked.

"Sure! Give the kid some sea-salt ice cream and he'll forget all about it." _At least I hope so… _

With a final nervous chuckle to each other, the old friends parted ways.

~.~.~.~.~

How much time had passed? It felt like Aizawa had been collecting wood for days. In truth, it'd been less than an hour; he was just grumpy because he didn't want to be the one to do it.

And who's plan had it been to build shelters anyways? Yes, L's. And what was the detective doing at the moment? Making a rock collection! While he was slaving in the sun to collect what driftwood he could find, that sweets-addict was basically doing nothing!

With an indignant huff, he marched back to the beach shore where the others were meandering about. Walking directly up to L, he threw the pile of wood down at his feet.

"I've had it! You must think you're still the boss of everyone, huh? Well, I'm sick of your better-than-us attitude! I dealt with it for the sake of catching Kira but Kira's not here and I'm not putting up with your pompous bullshit!"

L blinked, then put his right thumb to his lips. "Aizawa…you're honestly a very fine detective. One of the best on the team. I don't understand."

"Oh, don't try to flatter me! You want a shelter, build it yourself! Collect your own damn food instead of playing with your stupid rocks! I'm…I'm declaring anarchy!"

With a furious roar, he raised his fist in the air. Suddenly, Ide dropped what he was doing and did so too. "I agree! I've always hated you, L. We're not in Japan anymore so I don't have to listen to you!"

Mogi looked a bit torn between the two sides, but finally also dropped the task he was given. "You sort of treat me like a Neanderthal," he mumbled. "And it's clear you think little of me by making _me _Misa's manager, as though I'm second in stupidity next to Matsuda."

"I resent that!" Matsuda yelled, but Soichiro cut him off.

"We're stranded on a deserted island and this is when you three plan anarchy? Are you mad? This is when we need to stick together the most—"

"No." L's quiet voice was powerful enough to silence everyone. His head had been bowed the entire time, shadowing his eyes but now he raised them. The look in his eyes was resolute. "Let them go. If this is how they feel, then let it be. Although I must make this clear; all of our chances of survival and even rescue has been dropped from forty-four percent down to twenty-two."

Aizawa paused for just a moment before letting out a derisive snort. "I'll take those chances." He turned and walked away to the other side of the island, his final words trailing behind him. "Probably inaccurate any damn way…"

Ide quickly joined him and with a slight pitying look, Mogi went too.

Leaving L, Soichiro and Matsuda on their own.

* * *

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNN! Oh noes, what shall befall the DN cast? Will they make it? Will Matsuda ever move out of his mother's basement? All this and more in the next exciting chapter of…

Um, yeah. Let's not do that ^_^

As always, reviews appreciated!


	7. Pawn

In the entrance ramble to my Kairi unit, I mentioned how I felt I'm going to dislike my new Art Appreciation class since I'm not artistically inclined (actually, I'm sure I'll do well...), but there was one thing I found humorous about that first day. The instant I walked in, I looked at the front board to judge how big the teacher's handwriting was (very important since I have bad vision). Upon noticing it was thankfully large, my eyes were drawn to the word 'Vanitas' written up there. Sure, it's the name of a painting depicting how all our worldly possessions are useless in the afterlife but as a KH gamer, that's certainly not what came to my mind! I couldn't help but mumble to the person next to me, "Kingdom Hearts character!" when I saw it, xD!

Wonder if anyone else in the class was thinking that…

But enough of that! Enjoy the first chapter of _Nobody Special _of the new year!

**

* * *

Pawn**

"HERE PIGGY, PIGGY, PIGGY, HERE PIG!" Someone screamed down the hall in a frightening cackle. Doors slammed and fast, scurrying feet scrambled down the corridor. From his place in Zexion's room, Light could feel the airspace constantly shifting from someone opening portals around them, running from their chaser.

"Do I want to know what's happening out there?" Light asked Zexion skeptically, who was reading his lexicon for entertainment. He'd confided that big, dusty books were more pleasurable than social interaction ever could be and thus kept his book close to him at all times, if not for fighting than for reading. Granted, this was before he'd found a kindred spirit in Light.

"Oh, that's just Twelve picking on Nine again," the illusionist said calmly, not even looking up or flinching at the crashing sounds on the walls.

A particularly loud scream was heard by a male, freezing Light's blood in his veins. "Um…shouldn't we help him?"

Zexion shrugged. "I don't. Nobody does. He'll be fine. Besides, this place can be a dullard at times; the others find it entertaining to watch their little antics."

Now screams of "No Larxene! Please! Don't hurt me! Whatever I did, I'm sorry, okay? Stooooop!" Between these ragged cries, a female's sadistic voice yelled, "Oh Demy, this is what we always do! You know that! Now hold still so I can use you for target practice!"

"Are you _positive _we shouldn't help him?" Light's voice had risen to an uncharacteristically high squeak and couldn't help but emit a weak gasp as he began to hear the motor of a chainsaw.

The other boy gave a frustrated sigh and finally looked up. "He'll be fine. The Superior isn't going to let Nine die. Well…considering how pointless his existence is, he might. That'll be fine though. It means a higher rank for all of us." With that, he returned back to his book.

While Light still held dreams of being number one of this Organization (or the _only _one), the fraction of his heart that still existed told him that what was happening beyond that door was wrong. Killing people to create a new world was one thing; randomly torturing an innocent soul was another. As he got up, he lamented the uselessness of a Death Note here.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Zexion yelled, looking up with alarmed eyes. "Leave it be! It doesn't concern you! And trust me…you don't want to get mixed up with Larxene."

Was that…_fear _in Zexion's voice? "You're scared of her," Light said as a statement.

Drawing himself up in an affronted manner, the boy spat, "I am not! I'm of much higher rank than her and she'd be sorry if she ever messed with me."

"…in short, you're scared of her," Light repeated, eyes narrowed. "You said that Twelve was torturing Nine; seems like rank has nothing to do with power."

"I'm an illusionist! It's not hard to make it _seem _like she's attacking me when she really isn't."

Light nodded sagely at this, but added "Yes, but that's even if you get a chance to create one. You seem to need that book of yours to cast spells." With a purposeful stride, he walked up to the boy and slapped the lexicon out of his hands. For all the world, now it looked like he was being the bully, picking on the nerdy kid in school. That done, he went back to the door, preparing to leave.

"So you're just going to abandon me?" Zexion hissed, keeping his eyes on his fallen book. "Bros before hoes, I remember someone saying."

Light was more amazed that someone like Zexion would even know that line more than anything. "It's been fun, Zexion. You were a dear friend…for all the twenty minutes that I've known you." Without a single glance back, he walked out.

"TRAITOR!" Zexion screamed, louder than the previous noises that had filled the hall, reverberating probably through the entire castle.

It wasn't hard to find where the other two members were at, judging by the chaos spilling from an open room. Out in the hall were sheets of music paper, broken glass from a now-mangled picture frame, several guitar picks, a spilled jar of hair gel and cracked CD cases. Light cautiously peeked around the corner to see a young man only slightly older than himself bound and gagged to the bed. Above him stood a blond woman wielding three very real chainsaws who was pulling the cord to the motor, causing the man to whimper louder every time.

Pulling back, Light flattened himself to the wall. What the hell was he thinking, trying to be a hero? A very rational part of his brain screamed for him to go back to the sanctity of Zexion's room, to the forest illusion the boy had weaved that'd been nicely shattered by the cries coming from this room. He'd given up a decent friend in order to save this man. Might as well follow through.

With more resolve, he pushed away from the wall and strode in. The woman had her arm cocked back as though she was only seconds from throwing one of the chainsaws at the man. "Who the hell are you?" She sneered.

Light took in her appearance. Ugh…another blonde. He would've been thrilled to never see a blonde again after Misa. This woman had much shorter hair, nearly shoulder-length and sea-green eyes that seemed made for this cruel person. He wanted to ask what was up with those strands defying the laws of gravity but decided that he wasn't trying to become her next victim. "You two are _cough _making too much noise. C-could you keep it down?" Damnit, now his voice was shaking! There really was something quite terrifying about her.

Larxene switched off the saws and Light didn't miss the gigantic breath of relief the man on the bed let out. "Ooohh, you're the new guy, right? Eye-sore or something like that."

"_Aixort,_" he gritted between his teeth. Not sure why he was getting defensive over the name though. It didn't feel like his name, not…real enough.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Then the woman paused. "Say…you're not half-bad on the eyes." But she signed and held a hand up to her head, shaking it in a dramatic fashion. "Too bad you're still a baby. I can't do anything with you! Not that the normal rules of society apply to us, but even I still have standards. Unlike _some _of our members."

She slowly walked around the bed, trailing her finger up the man's chest to his chin. Resting it there, she leaned down and whispered, "Guess I'll have to get you another day. Don't you just _love _our little alone time?" Here, she gave a girlish giggle, trailing a manicured nail across his gagged mouth before pulling away and gliding out of the room.

After making sure she wasn't going to return again, Light seized upon the binds and began untying the guy. With his hands free, he gratefully yanked the gag off, rubbing his cheeks where it'd dug into his face. His first words were, "You're a lifesaver, you know that?"

A very good choice of first words, directed at someone that constantly needed his ego stroked. Nice, soft, languid strokes…

Ahem.

"You're welcome," Light said simply. "What'd you do to piss her off?"

"Nothing!" the man wailed. Though physically older, something about him seemed like he should've been much younger than Light, a more childish attitude. "She just likes the fact that our powers are opposites. And…that I don't like fighting much." He lowered his head at this last part, ashamed of himself.

"Well, what _is _her power?" Light was cataloguing all of this information. Who knew, maybe he could get the members to kill themselves off.

"Lightning," the man answered, standing up on legs that were still shaky from panicky adrenaline. "And I'm water. The two of course don't mix."

_Can't deny that,_ Light mused. "Not all electricity is good electricity though. Maybe you can over-surge her powers by feeding her too much water."

The blonde nervously rubbed a wrist, still keeping his eyes pointed away. "Yeah…but then she'll just stop using lightning and attack with her knives. She has as good of aim as Xigbar, probably even better. I mean…I guess I could try to use my water clones. But even _they're _scared of her! The instant I form them in front of her, they run away!"

Light tried to keep the shock off his face. "Oh. I see." When water clones run away from someone, that's how you know it's bad.

Suddenly perking up, the guy snapped to attention and declared, "I'm Demyx!"

It was then that Light realized that this man made a much more striking alliance than Zexion. He might still need Zexion, but Demyx…Demyx seemed naïve. Gullible. Easily manipulated…

He couldn't have met a better person.

"Aixort. But you're free to call me Light," the teen said, giving him his most radiant and trusting smile. He extended his hand in a friendly gesture, that hand reach that all Kingdom Hearts characters seemed to have perfected down to an art.

With a beatific and innocent smile, Demyx reached out as well and shook his hand. "Glad to meet you Light. I hope we can be friends."

"Yes. So do I." _In fact, I hope we become _real _close…_

* * *

And thus Light has sunk his teeth into sweet little Demyx! I intended for them to meet while on a mission but I'll admit that I'm not very strong with being creative with mission details (there will inevitably be some in this story, but I wanted to get the character development out of the way before I proceeded).

Well now, review people! You help to revive one of the puppies Light has killed with his smile every time you do!


	8. Out of Nothing At All

The start of a few more plot devices that may or may not be essential to the storyline, xD! If nothing else, it adds a little more creativity to things ^_^

**

* * *

Making Love Out of Nothing At All**

Time in The World That Never Was was virtually impossible to keep up with due to the lack of a sun or even moon phases. Light learned that several members were convinced that their dinner time was backwards and was actually being served during the breakfast hours. Others believed that their missions were being given at midnight rather than in the early a.m.

Light decided to just follow his body's signs and when he felt tired, he figured enough time had passed to suffice for him to head to bed. Besides, everyone operated on the Superior's time anyways so the bickering was essentially pointless.

With that said, it felt completely too soon for it to be the next day when he woke up to see an unknown creature slithering around on his room floor.

"GAH!" he shrieked and threw his pillow at it, the first thing his hands landed upon. The creature easily dodged it, but didn't seem to take too kindly to having things chucked at it. It stood up, looking like some sort of giant silver and purple mosquito with arrow-head protrusions on its arms.

This only served to make things worse and now Light began to throw any and everything he could get his hands on, his entire backpack, the pointless alarm clock, a Playboy magazine he'd shoved under the edge of his bed. The creature effortlessly dodged these, swirling and slithering on the floor and walls until the boy had tired himself out. It proceeded to come closer to the bed and Light could only give a pathetic whimper and cover his face. This thing was going to suck the non-existent life force out of him.

But by sheer (cliché) luck, the door burst open—and with no preamble from the person who did it; how rude!—and Axel's near-anorexic frame stepped in "Whoa, hey, I said give the kid the message, not terrify him to death. My understanding was that you had that memorized."

The creature turned to him with what appeared to be saddened, hopeful eyes, as though pleading for something.

"No! What did I tell you about controlling your Assassin instincts? You can't just kill anyone you want to!"

By now, Light had all but fainted in fright. He'd never been happier that he wasn't around anyone he knew. But in his defense, obscenely strong people who seemed to hold giant mosquitoes for pets seemed like a decent thing to be afraid of.

"Go away until I need you," Axel commanded, pointing a commanding finger to the door. "Gather up the other Nobody underlings and…I don't know, play Twister or something."

Clearly sulking, the creature slithered slowly away.

Only when it was gone was Light able to find his voice. "What in Kingdom Hearts—" He paused. He'd only been there for a day and already he was starting to swear like them. Ew, they were rubbing off on him. Instead, he composed himself and asked in a voice that belied no evidence of his previous fear. "What _was _that thing?"

Axel chuckled and rubbed a hand through his hair. "Just a little buddy of mine. I have control over the Assassin Nobodies." To himself he muttered derisively, "It's the least I could get considering how I was short-handed on my nickname."

Light's mind was still trying to wrap around the fact that this man, at only rank Eight, had control over his own personal brood of nobodies. "Does everyone control their own Nobody?" he ventured to ask.

The man frowned and leaned against the wall, thinking. "Most of us, at least. Although…it seems that there's a major gap between Four and Six…and Marluxia and Larxene don't control any either. And naturally Xion wouldn't, her being what she is…"

Light was about to press him about that but he was interrupted by Axel giving a loud clap. "Anyways, up and at 'em! You and I are paired on a mission today! And…not sure if you've met Demyx yet, but he's coming with us. The world we're going to is pretty big and Xemnas knows how much he screws up if he's on his own. You're tagging along so you can get more training. Your last usage of powers looked like a fluke; flukes get you killed in this place if you don't know what you're doing, got it memorized?"

Light blinked. That catchphrase was going to become painfully repetitive, he could feel it. "Yes, I have it memorized," he said evenly.

"Good! Meet me down in the Grey Room when ready." With that, he teleported out of the room instead of using the door…which left it wide open still.

The boy quickly shut it, leaning against the surface. He thought about what Axel had said about nearly everyone being able to control their own Nobodies. He'd finally learned everyone's ranks and it seemed puzzling that those as high as Four, Five and Six didn't have one. Maybe their power inhibited them from having one? What about himself?

For that matter, if he _did _want some, how would he go about creating them? He closed his eyes and thought about his powers, the brief glimpse he'd gotten the previous morning, remembering the meteor shower he'd caused. He had to smirk at how badass that was. Hopefully today would give him a chance to expand upon that.

As he thought, he pictured what his own Nobody underlings would look like. Certainly not the creepy, slithering things of the Assassin Nobodies or the disturbing, gyrating creatures the Dusks were. Something more…elegant. But powerful. With wings! And, and, and huge! Secret Service angels! With machine guns! And ninja skills! And tight spandex outfits in all the colors of the rainbow! And a Megazord—no, a Gundam! And a theme song!

Light was concentrating completely now, working out every minute detail of his beloved brethren. When he opened his eyes sometime later, he just _knew _he'd see seven foot angels in clean, pressed black suits standing in action poses in front of giant robots.

What he got was a strange, blue wispy creature, not sturdy enough to do a thing.

"What the hell is this? This isn't what I asked for! You don't even have any theme music!"

Even with no discernable shoulders, it was clear it gave something of a shrug…as much of a shrug as a cloud of gauzy mist can give.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and made a dramatic gesture with his arm. "Leave me. You are of no use to my plans." The mist darkened a bit, clearly offended, before swirling in a circle and disappearing with a _pop_.

"Utterly useless…" he muttered in disgust. Dressing in the standard Organization uniform, Light figured now was as good of time as any to practice his portal teleportations. Getting this right would be a nice pick-me-up after the disappointment of his Nobody lackey.

He pictured in his mind the Grey Room, the expansive glass wall at the back that overlooked the castle grounds, the couches where everyone would lounge, the card table in the corner where he'd seen most of the Org playing Kingdom Hearts Monopoly (Who the _hell_ made it?) and even the strange Moogle teddy bear that occupied a small store of supplies off to the side. He concentrated on making it there, of walking out of a portal in the wall just as cool as a cucumber.

Keeping the image in mind, he lifted up his hand and slowly, a black mass began to form, growing larger until it was his height. "Alright! I'm getting the hang of this Darkness stuff." He strode into the portal and with a disturbing _sshlurp_, it closed behind him.

The trip through darkness was quick, light filling up as he made his way to the other end. Probably since the destination was a close one, it wouldn't take him long to be there. Thrilled at his success, he ran toward the divine brightness and into—

A shower of hot water. In a tub with Hello Kitty curtains. And a man who was clearly naked, shower cap on to protect his hair and a scrubbing brush frozen in hand as he'd been washing his back.

Light screamed.

Lexaeus screamed even louder.

"Oh god man, I'm so sorry!" Light squeaked, covering his eyes and trying to feel his way back to his portal, but it'd already closed.

Lexaeus composed himself first. Reaching out to the counter, he wrapped a towel around himself and grabbed Light by the arm, all but throwing him as he pushed him out the door. "Aixort, you and I are never going to speak of this incident again, understand?"

"Was that…a Hello Kitty shower curtain you had?"

"NEVER AGAIN I SAID!" The man thundered and slammed the door shut.

Xigbar happened to be passing by at that moment and the man gave him that cocky grin he always sported. "Nice goin' there, Sunshine," he smirked. Like how Roxas was 'Tiger' and Xion was 'Poppet' (and Zexion was 'Shorty' although Light hadn't found that out yet), Xigbar had dubbed him a nickname too, taken from his real one. Sunshine. How creative.

"Guess the big guy turned ya down, huh? Lookin' at you, I never would've guessed you were that way…"

Light opened his mouth to spew a retort until he remembered with stabbing clarity that this was number Two. In the caste system of the Organization, he would never get away with such an act and he wasn't eager to find out what punishments here were like. The man was almost more infuriating than L, but at least L didn't have laser guns that could put him out of his (non)existence with one shot.

Gritting his teeth, he mumbled a "Good morning, Xigbar" out the corner of his mouth and dragged himself and his wounded pride down to the lower floors.

His hurt was momentarily erased though when he saw not just Axel and Demyx in the room but Luxord happened to be up too. And—could it be?—he was sober! At least it looked like he was. He was holding an amicable conversation with Marluxia, showing the two had made up from their bout yesterday.

On the floor behind a couch was the Nobody underlings. They indeed were playing Twister. He could easily spot Axel's Assassin, one of its claws on yellow and another on green, straining to keep himself up. Next to it was a tannish creature that was showing off its flexibility by bending backwards over the Assassin, easily placing a hand on red and a foot on blue. Off to the side was a gigantic figure with thick legs and arms and hefting a hammer-looking weapon somewhat similar to Saix's. The Nobody seemed to want to join but there was no room for his massive size. A dragon-looking Nobody served as the spinner, a lance by its side revealing this specimen to belong to Xaldin.

Light was still trying to figure out the fact that these things actually liked to play such mundane games when Axel whistled and called him over. At that signal though, the smaller Nobodies broke up, and the Assassin and tan ones walked over to where he was heading. The spritely one began to skate around Demyx in gentle, fluid motions. The man smiled down fondly at the Nobody, enjoying watching it play around. This only helped to give rise to the vexed feelings of failure at his own Nobody attempt.

"Okay, so all gathered and accounted for?" Axel said, calling him back to the present. Demyx nodded vigorously, thrilled that he had so much help for today.

Light only gave a dispassionate shrug.

"Alright then, to Port Royal we go!" Eight cheered and led the way into a better-constructed hole of darkness. His didn't flicker and waver like Light's own had.

"Wait, Saix told me we were going to Atlantica with the mermaids!" Demyx whined. "You know, with the mer-people and singing lobsters and stuff!"

"Yeah, sorry Dems, Saix lied to you," Axel called over his shoulder. "You should know by now he likes to fuck with your head."

"I was _finally _going to a world with my element and it's a lie?" If a Nobody could cry, Demyx was doing it.

"The cake is a lie," Light randomly put out.

"Obligatory reference to a pop-culture meme?" Axel asked.

"Naturally. Just like Mudkips."

"I liek Mudkipz" Demyx sniffed through his tears.

"Happy to hear it, Dems," Axel said, sounding like he actually couldn't care less.

The pathway of this portal was much longer that Light's own, probably due to the fact that the destination was much farther. After several minutes of walking though, a new smell filled the area. It smelled of the ocean, hard work and sweaty bodies and…something unpleasantly fetid.

Of course Light would find out what it was soon enough.

* * *

Am I the only one who ever found it kinda mean that none of the characters from Castle Oblivion had a Nobody populace to control (ignoring Axel)? I could've sworn Zexion had one. But I mistook his for Xemnas', the Sorcerer Nobodies (the title seems more befitting for Zex). And…why did you have to fight the ones from Roxas? Great, Sora's own Nobody was trying to kill him; and this is why I say these two hate each other!

I bet you guys are wondering what happened to the Task Force and L, huh? Don't worry, we'll get back to them; I don't have a heck of a lot of things to finish up for them so I'm holding off writing those last moments.


	9. Divine Destruction

It seems like it's been forever since I've updated. Excluding school, I've been hooked on…Final Fantasy VII! And I _love _it! Ignoring the immense decline in graphics (I'm playing it on my PSP though so it's not too terribly bad), it's quite addictive. To me, one of the funniest features is that I'm allowed to rename everyone. And whoa boy, did I make full use of it! Our blonde hero Cloud is now Douchebag. Because let's face it; the guy's a douche half the time, so rude and cocky. Tifa's Lady Gaga to piss off a friend who hates the singer but loves the character. And on a total whim, Aeris is 'Butch'. Mm-hmm. Poor Aeris. I already have a copy of Crises Core to be played next so naturally this means an FFVII story from me soon!

Anywho, quite the long chapter here but it has yet again more character development and _gasp_, plot development! It's still a bit run-around though…and this seems to be my worst case of it yet. So, no more rambles right now. Read and enjoy ^_^

**

* * *

Divine Destruction**

"Oh, hey, you guys do know that Port Royal is under a zombie infestation, right?" Axel chose to ask only seconds from coming out of the channel of darkness.

Demyx had been tuning his sitar as he walked but struck a sour note at his words and froze. "You're…kidding me, right?"

"Nah-uh. This place is crawlin' with 'em." The man smirked and waved his hands across his body in a dramatic gesture, his chakrams flashing to his hands. "You're not scared, are you?"

"Aww, that's not fair!" Demyx groaned. "Saix _knows _how much I hate dead people! I failed working my mission in the Underworld, what the hell made him think I'd do better with zombies?"

Axel then turned to Light, his smile growing even wider and the boy could've done without that mocking look in his eyes. "How 'bout you, Aixort? Ready to handle the undead?"

"Well, let's see. We don't have hearts thus we too are the undead in a sense. It's like fighting our more popular brothers, right?"

"Wrong!" Axel cackled, clearly enjoying getting under their skin. "These guys were pirates cursed by some mythical gold when their eyes outweighed their pockets if you know what I mean. Bit off more than they could chew and now, everytime the moon goes behind the clouds, they turn into flesh eating zombies. But don't worry, it's usually pretty cloudless here."

"If that was supposed to make me feel better, it didn't," Light said, scowling. "So, how do we deal with these things?"

Axel actually faltered. "Uh…you know…same way people always get rid of zombies. A double-barrel shotgun to the head!"

Both Demyx and Light stared at him, calling his bullshit.

"What? Tell me you guys have played an FPS before!"

"A _what?_" Demyx asked, scratching his mullet.

"First Person Shooter! Lots of games like that have a zombie theme! Ever heard of Resident Evil?"

Demyx shook his head no while Light nodded. Axel looked hopeful until he added, "But I've never played it."

"Left 4 Dead?"

Nope.

"Silent Hill?"

Uh-uh.

"C'mon, Dead Rising?"

Nada.

"You guys have gotta be bustin' my balls here!" Axel shouted, actually grabbing and pulling his fiery hair in his anger. "So you guys have no experience whatsoever with zombies?"

"Are you seriously expecting an assimilation _video game _to be our source of experience?" Light countered. "And even if we had played the games, these zombies are _real_. True-blue zombies don't die! So explain how we're gonna deal with that, smartypants!"

"In real life, zombies don't exist," Demyx muttered, more to himself.

Axel sighed in defeat. "Fine. Video games aside, they still have the weakness of the moonlit sky. That's when they're in their humanoid form. Well, a very rough version of it. They won't fully die, but they'll stay down long enough to get out of the area. To make things easier, I'm assigning you guys a part. As team leader, I'll go in first. I'll take out the majority of them but what I don't get on the first initial hacks, Demyx, you'll take care of those. Aixort, as most junior, you'll bring up the end and catch whatever Demyx doesn't take out. Also, if they happen to still be moving on the ground or get back up, those are your responsibilities too, so glue your eyes to the back of your head. Alright, everyone, got that memorized? Good!"

~.~.~.~.~

The first few encounters were easy enough on Light's part. Axel's chakrams aimed straight and true and before long, the ground around them was littered with severed heads. Even Demyx did nothing more than follow behind him. Axel called from the front that they were collecting some sort of talisman that the Organization wanted and Light didn't miss the sigh from Nine and the loud cursing of the mission being a near exact copy of the one he'd had before.

As they moved farther inland on the cursed island though, more and more zombies were popping out from dark nooks and crannies, and worse yet, get back up from the ground quicker. In their rush, Axel had stopped trying to kill all of them and now Demyx too was fighting. Light scratched his head as he watched the man swing his sitar, wondering why in god's name was he using his beloved _instrument_, of all things, as a weapon.

"You know, when I get my heart back, I'm living somewhere that's constantly bright," he huffed between swings at the undead. "I heard that up north in the summer, the sun never fully sets."

Light only stepped back as to not be hit but did nothing to help him fight. The Organization seemed to have forgotten to give him a weapon. "And where are you going to go for the rest of the seasons? Night is part of the world, you can't run from it."

With the zombies down for a little longer, Demyx picked up his sitar and ran to catch back up with Axel. "Live inside with the lights on all the time, I dunno. I can build my own dam and create electricity from that so I have my own energy."

"Er, won't you lose your water abilities once you're human again?"

While still moving, the boy's face fell. "Crap." He quickly composed himself and said, "Either way, I won't be labeled a _nocturne _anymore."

Light paused to scoop up a handful of dirt and throw it in the eyes of a zombie that was a little too close for comfort. "Actually, in relation to music, nocturne is a slow, lyrical composition, intimate in character and often for piano solos. Ignoring your instrument of choice, someone knew what they were doing when they nicknamed you."

Demyx's mouth fell open in awe. "How the hell do you know this?"

"I read."

"No wonder you and Zexion are so close!"

Light's shoulders fell and he again hung back as Demyx began to fight. "Zexion and I…don't hang out anymore."

Demyx strummed a note that caused a geyser of water to knock back a group of zombies. "Oohh…sorry to hear that…"

Twenty yards ahead, Axel shouted, "Hurry the hell up! We're almost there." Without even looking behind him, he threw his blade and lopped off a few more heads before continuing to run.

The other two fell silent as they caught up. They were traveling down a cavern tunnel that opened up to a spacious area surrounded by stone figures doing different hand signs, perhaps to summon something.

_Jutsu? _Light wondered. The constant submission to anime made it hard for him to not let the word slip.

Axel led them to a stone dais in the center of the room. The structure was hollowed out and within it happened to be several pieces of gold. "Leave the treasure guys; I know Xemnas needs to give us a raise but trust me, you don't want this money…unless you wanna become one of our undead friends out there. Search around for a specific coin that's double-sided with the same face. It should be within this room."

Before any of aforementioned undead friends dragged their rotting carcasses into the chamber, Light quickly began searching for the talisman. Axel continued to sift through the dais and Demyx was scanning the crevices in the wall.

He himself had taken to checking the jutsu gods. Digging his hand down between one woman's cleavage, he shuddered in horror at the thought of feeling up the deity. "Forgive me ma'am but your bountiful bosom might be holding something I need. Just think of this as…a mammogram. Yeah, that's it..."

But the woman's chesticles revealed nothing and left Light feeling extremely perverted. He went over to the next guy who thankfully was carved in such a way that nothing could be hidden in the folds of the stone clothes.

He looked around the base but nothing was there. The hands were cupped to where an item could be placed but this was empty too. Exasperated, he leaned against the cavern wall and that's when he saw it—something shiny behind its ear.

"Hey, I think I found it!" He reached out and sure enough, it was a double-faced coin. "C'mon, this is the oldest party trick in the world. Plus, this was too easy, there has to be a catch—"

And there was. Immediately, the flames lighting the torches on the wall extinguished and they were plunged into darkness. From an indiscernible location, a low moaning began and was soon joined by several other voices, a chorus of the dead.

Axel lit a flame in his hand and recoiled with an uncharacteristic yelp. They were surrounded by zombies but these ones looked much more grotesque and even in their decaying form, seemed to have more muscle mass as well. His first reaction would've been to form a ring of fire and use this to surprise attack his enemies but the closed-in area would've put the other two in danger.

To add to their predicament, the flame he was holding went out and refused to be ignited again. They were stuck in the dark.

"Shit! Keep your backs to the wall, got it memorized? Let them come to you, don't go to them! No portals either! Not trying to risk bringing these things back with us." With that said, the sound of metal slashing flesh rang out as Axel started off the battle.

Light could hear the off-key twangs from Demyx as he fought as well but he himself was defenseless. Now would've been a _really _great time to find a weapon. His hand reached out and he felt the stone roughness of the statue. Unfortunately, it was much too big to pick up. But maybe…

He snapped off a few fingers of the man, uttering a mental prayer of apology. Moving blindly, he threw one of the digits and heard one of the zombies groan louder. Yes! But…oh no! The shuffling and dragging of feet grew faster as they advanced toward him.

Was this how it was going to end, him devoured by zombies? The very thing millions of people gamed about, watched movies of and theoretically discussed was about to happen to him. This is what he got for feeling too above the rest of the world to join in on a discussion.

One of the zombies were very close now; breath that smelled like raw sewage and monkey unmentionables. Like the other few times he'd been made to fight, Light instead wanted to curl up and accept defeat.

But the gesture reminded him that he actually wasn't completely screwed; not yet anyways. His abilities. The Organization really needed to offer newbies classes on how to use them; beating your subjects senseless wasn't very practical considering Light still had no idea on how to recreate what he'd done the first day.

He waved his hands in the air and yelled out "Cosmic chaos!" like last time. Naturally nothing happened. He snapped his fingers and tried to copy the ninja hand movements of Naruto and still nothing occurred, except—

In a puff of smoke, his wispy, ill-formed Nobody appeared by his side. As it shimmered, it now seemed to have bright orbs that resembled eyes and it looked up expectantly at its master.

"Nooo, go away damnit!" Light shouted and was about to wave it off when Demyx interrupted him.

"Way to go, Aixort! I can see now!" The man said and sure enough, the cavern was filled with the pale blue light from the creature.

"Since it's not fire, it's not subject to the curse," Axel added in. "Nice thinking there."

Of course this was just an extremely lucky fluke.

"Alright, Jazzmine, Adagio, go!" Demyx shouted and two of his own Nobodies appeared and began their graceful gliding and turning, fighting the zombies in a way that still looked like dancing.

_Wait, did he _name _them? What is this, Pokemon? _He turned to his own Nobody…thing and muttered, "I suppose you can't do much else, can you?"

It blinked but otherwise didn't move.

"Of course you can't." He grumbled. The zombies were closing back in again after being momentarily stunned by the new light. At least the exit was now visible. Without a word to the others, he made a break for it but only got halfway down the tunnel before he was blocked off and even worse, surrounded.

Both Nobodies began trembling in fear.

"This is it, Misty," Light told the Nobody, unknowingly also naming it. "I die at the tender age of eighteen. So much I wanted to do…get rid of Misa, kill L, rule the world…simple dreams that now I'll never be able to see come true." He closed his eyes so as to not see his demise.

_Angel's Fury. _

He jerked up and looked around, searching for that voice. What the hell was an Angel's Fury? Was that a sign that the gods were mad about him fondling that statue and breaking the man's fingers? _I said I was sorry! What more do you want? _

Clearly, his death.

_Use Angel's Fury, _the voice whispered louder. Light finally realized that it wasn't an audible sound in the normal sense but instead came from…in his mind? His eyes fell to his Nobody who only stared innocently back.

"So you're not completely useless! Okay Einstein, just how do I _do _Angel's Fury?"

_It is a part of you. Feel it within. _

"That's not good enough!" he shouted dramatically, backing up from the advancing zombies. They were getting dangerously close and that _smell _was enough to almost make him breathe out his mouth instead. But Misty chose now to fall silent on the details.

A clammy, bloody hand wrapped around Light's wrist and dragged him closer. More latched on to his clothes and began pulling him forth, baring rotting teeth that deceived the power they held. Panic overtook him completely (how are Nobodies able to be afraid?) and his natural fight or flight reflex set in. He chose to fight.

A chilly sensation ran down his spine, infusing him with more strength than he ever remembered. He viciously shoved a zombie away and with the momentum, took several others with it. His whole body began to tremble but this time not from fear. The power was too much to keep in and having no idea on how to use it, his instincts supplied the easy answer of release.

He would never be able to quite describe it. It was almost as though every pore, every fiber of his being was discharging the energy. It erupted in a blinding haze of blue and white light and hotter than anything he'd ever felt. He suspected he wouldn't live through the experience, that his body had combusted and he'd unknowingly done a suicide attack.

The light slowly faded away and his ears rung from the thunderous noise that'd filled the enclose space. Awareness. He'd lived! And as a plus, he was also floating.

Below him lay the remains of the zombies. Not entire forms but tiny fragments that hadn't been incinerated. From around a corner, Axel and Demyx appeared looking as shocked and amazed as Light felt.

"What. In the hell. Was that?" Axel asked.

"_You _did that, Aixort?" Demyx questioned. "All I know is, I was fighting off the zombies one moment and the next, everything went white and then…they were gone."

The ability to hold himself up drained and in his exhaustion of the move, Light dropped to the ground. The other two came forward and helped him up and Axel created a portal for them now that the coast was clear. "It didn't burn either of you?" Light wondered. "Maybe it's because you're Nobodies…"

Axel shook his head, frowning. "Nah. The powers of a Nobody can still affect another Nobody. I think…Dem and I got lucky. Fire attacks or anything like it aren't exactly effective against Demyx. As for me," he grinned, "You can't fight fire with fire."

The portal that'd been formed went to Light's own room and he thankfully fell upon the bed, thoroughly tired. It seemed the move sapped all of his strength. Well, it surely _felt _like it should when he was doing it. The others left out the room, calling goodnight.

He didn't answer, only passing out into a dreamless slumber.

~.~.~.~.~

Xemnas was in his office, doing nothing more than poking a bobble head of a heartless on his desk. He delighted in seeing the figure bounce around and giggled childishly every time he poked it.

At the sound of a knock at the door, he quickly swept the toy into a dresser drawer, rearranging his features to displace his goofy grin. In a much more mature voice he called out, "Enter."

Ahh, Saix. The moment he had set eyes on him years ago, he knew he was perfect to be second in command. Between the freshness of having just lost his heart and the resulting apathy toward his best friend, he figured all he needed was one more little push to completely have Saix on his side. By making him a rank higher than Axel and entitling him to more privileges, he'd effectively driven a wedge between the friends and secured Saix's loyalty.

Of course there was no doubt in his mind that Saix was so compliant only to get in good so as to overthrow him or hoping for a large piece of the pie once Kingdom Hearts was completed. Or maybe the man genuinely wanted a heart again. Either way, he was at least _seemingly _devoted and that would do for now.

The Luna Diviner sat down in a chair across the desk and primly crossed his legs. It always amused Xemnas that the man clearly came from big money; he was too self-assured to have come from a low family.

"Superior, I'm worried about our newest recruit," Saix started off, cutting to the heart of the matter. "Considering you initially said thirteen members were necessary for Kingdom Heart's to be reformed, I find it a mystery as to why you allowed a fifteenth member."

Xemnas smiled thinly at him. "You're quite right about that, Seven. We are over-staffed. But you see, I realized in my initial planning that I was quite wrong in my calculations."

Hearing Xemnas admit he was wrong was like Larxene being nice; it just didn't happen. "Continue."

"Well, you already know why I had Vexen create for us a replica of the Keyblade master. More hearts in a shorter amount of time. But when I sensed Aixort's power upon becoming a Nobody, I realized that just gathering hearts weren't enough. There needed to be a source to open that power as well."

Saix frowned for a moment, actually placing a gloved hand to his lip in thought. Suddenly it dawned on him and he jerked up. "He's a Keyblade wielder?"

Xemnas' eyes crinkled in enjoyment. "Oh, how I wish. But no. We don't need more Keybladers. And getting the actual _X_-blade will take too long. Kingdom Hearts is a mystical and astrological force. Someone with the same powers might very well be able to unlock it without such a weapon. _This _is why I've allowed us to overfill our boundaries on members. Plus if I start ousting people I don't need (_ahem, _Nine!), then they'll get suspicious."

Seven nodded at the information, but asked, "And what of Namine and Repliku? What purpose do they serve?"

Xemnas shrugged and distractedly pulled out the bobble head figure again. "We're just creating a false sense of security for Namine before we use her again. As for Repliku…Vexen's grown rather…_attached _to his creations. Who knew abortion was one of limits? He refuses to get rid of the replica and I honestly don't care if it lives here, so long as Vexen gives me his cooperation."

An approving smile crossed the Diviner's face before adding, "And me, Superior?"

Xemnas' finger paused in midair. "You, Seven, are of course entrusted to keep this information to yourself."

Saix didn't look satisfied.

"And you're invaluable to me," the Superior rushed, rolling his eyes slightly. "Now go. I'm quite busy."

Saix stood and watched him prod the bobble-head over and over, a contented peace settling about the man at the simplicity of the toy. "Busy…sure…I see." He closed the office door behind him with an amused grin.

* * *

Only now, nine chapters later, do I finally come up with the reason as to _why _Light is actually needed in the Org, xD! And as for the '_X-_blade' reference, that's from Birth by Sleep if you guys haven't played it. It's pronounced exactly like Keyblade. Of course in reality, Xemnas has not told anyone about it; Xigbar is the only member of the Organization that knows it's what Xemnas is after but none of that is playing a part in this story.

Also, if Light's Angel's Fury attack seemed like Axel's suicide one, that was for two reasons. Remember, Light's getting the off-spill of an ancient OC of mine; the move was created back in my very early days of fanfic writing (Oh, I was such a dweeb). Also, it does basically boarder on Axel's move which lends a visual aid as to what it looks like. This wasn't to slight Axel by stealing something from him or Square Enix. Guess great minds think alike, xD!

Alrightie, if you actually read through all of this, do me one last kind favor and review please ^_^ And virtual…whatever the heck you want for being such a dear!


	10. Everyone Has a Plan B

Heh-heh, just when you get used to one thing, I shift the tides again. But it's about time a few other things were addressed. Enjoy!

**

* * *

Everyone Has a Plan B**

"What are they doing now?" Sora asked Riku quietly. They were again in the perch Kairi had used the first time to show them the new strangers on the island. Riku was crouched between a large rock and a palm tree, staring down at the beach with a pair of binoculars.

"Well, it seems they're trying to build lodges or something. Not doing a great job at it, if I had to say." Riku snickered and handed the binoculars to Sora.

Indeed the lodges did look quite crude. He, Riku and Kairi had made much sturdier huts in their summer days and had even worked together to build a main tree house. This summer was supposed to be the finishing of the raft that was interrupted due to the darkness that took over the island two years ago. Now it was again on hiatus with the arrival of these strange people.

"They must think this place is desolate," Sora whispered, handing the binocs back. "I mean, sure, most people don't live on Destiny Island all year long since it's unsafe come hurricane season but these guys haven't even noticed the summer houses."

"Yeah, well let's hope they _don't _notice them either. They've already had a fallout and divided into two separate groups, showing that they can't get along amongst themselves. Imagine how much worse it would be with them making demands of us too." Riku paused for a second, then asked, "Where's Kairi?"

"Watching the other bozos," Sora shrugged. "Are you guys _sure _you don't want me to just get rid of them with my Keyblade?"

"They're not even heartless, Sora!" Riku whispered harshly. "At least, we don't think so. They're kinda dumb, but they're smarter than a heartless."

"Maybe they're Nobodies."

"That's a good possibility. But if so, they haven't tapped into any powers yet. Another reason to keep an eye on them."

Sora sat back and conjured the Ultima Keyblade, sharpening the edge on a stone. "Whatever you say. Just give me a call when we're ready to attack."

Riku gave him a mildly disturbed glance before going back to observing the beach.

~.~.~

This wasn't working. After what must've been hours, the first of their shelters was finally completed. But L felt something was wrong about it. Actually, everything. The dilapidated structure was standing at a dangerous lean and the soft sandy ground was probably a terrible place to try to build it in the first place. But Aizawa's gang had claimed the other grounds and this was all they had to work with.

"This was…an effort, but we need to make more. I don't think we all want to share one hut," the detective murmured just loud enough for the other two to hear him.

Matsuda wasted no time in letting out a childish whine and flopping down on the ground. "I'm tired! All this work sucks! And whatever the hell that fruit was it's starting to sour in my stomach."

The chief was looking worse for wear. He was too old to be sweating in the tropical sun building grass huts. "L, we really need to figure out how to return home. That's the real solution to all of this."

"Yes, I know that," L snapped, under pressure and getting hot and bothered. "But nobody here has any idea on how we even got here, do they? So returning is impossible. The best we can do is wait the situation out for now."

"I'm tired of waiting!" Matsuda shouted, standing back up. "I've seen Aizawa and the others over there building stuff too! I say we take a look and see what they've got and take us some!"

"We're not resorting to those methods—" L began to say but Soichiro cut him off.

"I agree. Right now, it's us against them. And like it or not, I'm still their superior and I think I deserve a bit of the cut of their labors. I've put in more work in my lifetime then those men there; I deserve to have it repaid to me."

Without waiting for any response, he and Matsuda began trudging across the beach, heading to the other side of the island. L had to admit, his curiosity was getting the better of him of what Aizawa and the others had been up to and he followed after them in his usual crouched stance.

They paused before completely rounding the bend of the island. Situated higher up on a rock ledge of the island mountainside were several caves. Nighttime was descending and thus a large fire burned out front. Around it sat Mogi and Ide, ripping meat from the bone of some wild animal. How the hell did they catch it? But that was the least oppressing issue. Matsuda was salivating like a hyena looking at it and L noticed the chief wipe his mouth in hunger. Even he looked on with longing, ignoring that he usually only ate sweets.

Aizawa sat on a large rock, showing his dominance over the group. In his hand was the largest leg chop L had ever seen and the man greedily tore hunks off of it, chewing savagely. Gone for the most part were the work suits they'd arrived in. The clothes were more tattered than whole. Ide had said screw it to his shirt altogether.

The image was most primitive indeed.

"Alright, here's the plan," L whispered to them. "We're going to just go up and only politely ask—"

"Hey, you greedy ass pigs! Share some of that!" Matsuda screamed, stepping out from their hiding spot and addressing Aizawa's group.

The three stood up and from their height on the ledge, they looked suddenly menacing. "Go away, runt. There's nothing for you here," Ide scoffed.

"You took your side, now live with it," Mogi added in.

Aizawa held up his hands and both men fell silent. "Chief Aizawa will speak now." He addressed them.

_Chief Aizawa! _Soichiro gritted his teeth at the audacity of this man. How dare he usurp him!

"We have made it clear that you are not welcome," Aizawa said in a deep voice, speaking dramatically. To add to the effect, his afro had a halo of leaves and…berries around it, making a crown befit for Caesar.

"You are the Sand Dwellers. You are not to intermingle with the Cave Conquerors. We have worked hard and our people are prosperous. We have _earned _what we have. If you have squandered away your time and have done nothing, that is on you! But do not beg us for goods you were too lazy to produce yourself. I have spoken."

With that, he sat back down and the others followed suit. As though nothing had happened, they picked back up their meat and began stripping it from the bone, completely ignoring the three on the ground.

Disgruntled, Soichiro led the group back down the beach. "So, now we're the Sand Dwellers?" He spat the word.

"Fuck that, we're not taking this shit lying down!" Matsuda raged, kicking a paopu fruit out to the ocean, not caring that it meant throwing shoes again to get another. "Who died and made him king?"

"That's it." L whispered. The darkness in his voice chilled them to the core. "It's clear that at this rate, we're not going to last long. We can't live off of star-fruit and pathetically small fish forever. Well…maybe. But I'm not about to try it! If Aizawa's always disliked me then the feeling is mutual. It's time…for a raid."

"Now you're speaking my language!" Matsuda cheered, evil glee lighting his eyes.

"And when do we attack?" Soichiro asked.

L placed a thumb to his lip in thought. "We'll need time to build up weapons. I say…we strike…a fortnight from now."

"Yeah!" Matsuda cheered again. Then frowned, lowering his arm and scratching his head. "Wait, what's a fortnight?"

"Two weeks," Soichiro clarified.

"Two weeks! We don't have that sort of time!"

"You're right," L said. "Fine, I believe tomorrow evening then should work better. We'll have a forty percent chance of victory."

"Only forty?" Soichiro questioned. He shook his head in disgust and crawled into the hut. "Not sure if it's worth trying if that's the case," he called from the inside.

L got down on his fours and climbed in too, taking a corner by the door. "It is low, and it would be fifty percent except they have youth and strength on their hands. Our best defense is primarily intellect and that's been halved by—"

"What, me?" Matsuda snapped, climbing in as well, now making the hut completely cramped.

"It's a fact, Matsuda," Soichiro told him from where he lay. "You're not the brightest bulb in the box. Once you come to terms with that, you'll live a much more fulfilling life."

"You're asking me to admit I'm stupid! How the hell is that fulfilling?"

"Nobody's calling you stupid," L tried to placate him. "We're just saying…that sometimes…your train arrives at the station a little behind schedule from others. It still gets there! Just…in its own time."

Matsuda gave the detective a sardonic look that he couldn't see in the dark. "You know L, you make people want to go anarchy on you."

"As long as I currently have your loyalty though, then that is all that matters," the man replied. "Tomorrow night, we strike. Now rest. We'll need our strength to get…fruit and fish again. In order to get more strength. How unending…"

They each curled up on their sides, slowly drifting off and dreaming of tomorrow's victory.

~.~.~

"Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! DELETE!" Mikami's pen slashed wildly on the pages of his Death Note as he gleefully killed people he'd found on the internet.

"You know, this is probably why you're single," Ryuk commented, floating next to him and looking over his shoulder.

"Women cannot give me as much joy as God has given me with this notebook," Mikami paused long enough in his 'Delete' monologue to reply. "I will do God's work if he isn't able to do it! It's an _honor _to be given this power!"

_I think I'm going to be the first shinigami to vomit if he carries on like this, _Ryuk gagged. Unable to actually kill people on Light's terms, he'd taken the book to the next best person. Perhaps _too _much better. He'd been listening to Mikami's fanatic mutters of 'delete' for the past forty-eight hours and he was reaching his breaking point.

"Say, got an apple? I've not had one in forever," Ryuk asked, drifting with a hand on his cheek, completely bored.

"Apples? Ew! What disgusting fruits. They're the reason this world is in the sorry state that it is. Eve just had to eat that apple and thus damn us all!"

Ryuk could care less for the history of humanity. This man hated apples. Meaning he would never get him one. This was…preposterous!

In the blink of an eye, he'd reached down and ripped the Death Note from under his fingers while in the midst of writing someone's name. He didn't say a word as he walked through the man's wall (hopefully for the last time) and into his own intergalactic portal. He came out through a pure white wall, darkened from nightfall.

Light was sprawled rather carelessly on his bed, snoring loudly and still dressed in the Organization cloak. This meant little to Ryuk who quickly scribbled a note in the book before harshly flinging it at the boy.

"I did as you told, but it didn't work out. Please remember that Gods of Death do have mental limits. Also, I only ask of you _one thing. _While I understand that you cannot fill my needs in your current situation, you _do _owe me. Big time. I'll be waiting."

With that done, Ryuk left back through the wall, rubbing his empty stomach regretfully.

* * *

I hardly use Mikami but his craziness is always fun to write whenever I do. Grown man blindly devoted to a teenager…so sad, xD! I know the switching from Light's half of the story and what's happening on Destiny Island is a bit confusing so sorry for that. But each side sort of needs the other…you'll see.

There's a little button below that you should probably click. I mean, no major or anything but just saying…you should click it. C'mon, you know you wanna. Go on. Click it. CLICK IT! ^_^


	11. Silver and Gold

Oh man…I did it again. And I feel god awful about it. But…trust me people, this was _not _the plan. Which, seeing as how I didn't have a plan, there wasn't really a concrete sketch to go against. But whatever. With no warning, I have made this the next to last chapter.

Please don't kill me.

Near the end, I realized that I had actually managed to bring the events up to a very good point of concluding the story. This story has been a bit of a run-on and has see-sawed back and forth to a point where I know it has to be giving you guys a headache so think of this as me putting you out of your misery, xD!

As for this chapter, I might as well let you know it gets pretty OOC. I'm going to be irresponsible and blame that on watching Ouran Host Club again while in the middle of writing it (if that show isn't random, I don't know what is). Wow, this has to be my longest chapter ever…so, I hope you guys enjoy it!

**

* * *

Silver and Gold**

Light was more amused by Ryuk's letter than upset. Mikami was probably the recipient of the notebook rather than the shinigami begging favor from Misa. Shame that Mikami's Kira-fanboying was preferable to Misa but even he could agree with the choice. But no matter if the Death Note was back in his hands; enough killing had continued in his absence to clear his name if interrogated by L.

At the breakfast table, Light happened to spot a decent opening beside Demyx, his new 'bff' (or so the Nocturne thought). What he missed until after he sat down was that Zexion was on his other side. The Illusionist gave him a disdainful sniff and returned his eyes to his Lexicon which was propped against a carton of orange juice.

"So, Light, last mission was pretty awesome, huh?" Demyx babbled, shoving an entire pancake in his mouth. Instead of having poured syrup on it already, he just tipped the bottle back and drank a mouthful as he chewed. Where the hell had he learned such manners!

"Um…yeah…awesome…" Light mumbled, half transfixed in watching him. Demyx proceeded to place his bacon, sausage, and over-easy egg on a piece of toast and take a humongous bite. At best it was a display of ingenuity and at worst was the product of being raised by wild animals. And here he'd thought Namine's eating was bad! Well…actually the two could surely rival each other.

"I hope we get paired again," Demyx bashfully admitted, lowering his food for a moment. "Your powers are pretty awesome. Wish I'd learned mine that quickly." He took another large bite to cover for his embarrassing confession.

Light wouldn't say it but Demyx still had him beat in the department of having a Nobody and until he'd mastered both, Nine was…actually stronger than him. Although he had the element of confidence on his side. Now seeing that he'd displayed his abilities twice, he knew without a doubt that he could continue to do so. Eventually it would no longer be a 'fluke' as Axel had called it.

Light turned to his other side to glance at Zexion and noticed that the boy had been staring at the same page for the past ten minutes. "Finding our conversation interesting?" Light asked sweetly.

"What? I wasn't eavesdropping!" The boy scoffed and quickly flipped the page as though he were only now finished the last one. "I could care less for what you and he discuss. I don't care one iota."

"It's okay, Zexy, you can talk to us if you want to!" Demyx yelled across Light, spitting his half-chewed food into his plate. Light did little to hide the horrified expression on his face and with shaking fingers, he pushed the dish away, then furiously wiped his hands on a napkin.

Zexion didn't miss the action either and had twisted his face into an extremely perplexed expression, eyes wide and eyebrows quirked. With a hollow chuckle, he wiped his mouth and said, "On that note, I think I'm done here," and left the table.

Demyx, mouth still full of food, asked, "What? Was it something I said?"

~.~.~.~.~

An hour later, Light was in a world called Hollow Bastion with the androgynous Marluxia and the blonde kid, Roxas.

"Well, if this isn't…unusual," Marluxia commented. In short, he wasn't impressed with his teammates.

The blonde boy shrugged. "I gotta collect hearts from heartless here. You two are doing reconnaissance. I already learned that from Vexen ages ago." He paused for a second, then added, "You know, I swear that's the only time I've ever seen him leave to do a regular mission."

"Of course not! He lives in the basement," Marluxia laughed, leading them closer to the main town. "How many times have you even seen him eat at the table? I say it wouldn't exceed three."

Just before reaching the main square, the Graceful Assassin pulled up short and turned to them. "Actually, I was instructed to snatch a disk from Ansem's old office. Roxas, you're still on heartless detail. But you, Aixort, are the one doing reconnaissance. Gather as much detail about this world and its inhabitants as possible. And whatever you do, try not to make yourself too obvious." Here, he flicked his bright pink hair, causing a shower of rose petals to fall.

_ Hypocrite, _Light snorted. Marluxia was the one out of all of them that'd probably be spotted first. But he nodded in understanding anyways. "Sure. Anything specific I'm looking for though?"

Marluxia shrugged. "You know our goal; keep your ears open for anything that might sound good. Now, I shall be off. And don't get caught!" he yelled behind him as he ran into the distance…leaving behind a very thick trail of petals.

Roxas stared at them and sighed, then turned to Light. "Well dude, I'm off too. The Pink Wonder forgot to tell you that we usually all meet up again at the end of missions to ensure all comrades are accounted for so when you're finished, just come back to this spot and we'll RTC together."

"RT…?"

"Return to castle," the boy grinned. "See ya!" he waved and was also gone.

Now alone, Light considered his best way to fulfill his mission. First and foremost, the cult cloak had to go. He pulled it over his head, revealing the t-shirt he wore underneath with the black pants. But now where to put it…

Out of nowhere, a flash went off beside him and Misty, his only Nobody, appeared. In only a day, it had again changed and while still bluish and slightly gauzy, it had taken on a more human form in the fact that it had two arms and legs and what could either be tentacles or hair on its head. The face was still indiscernible and the body wasn't solid yet either.

Holding out one of its new hands, Misty stared down Light's coat. The Nobody itself wore what could also be a cloak or a dress and a vague outline of the Organization symbol could be seen on its chest. Puzzled, Light looked at his jacket. "You want this?" He tentatively handed it over. The Nobody gave a nod of satisfaction and in another flash was gone.

"Huh. I'll never have to hand over my coat at a restaurant again!" Finally, that _thing _was useful for something. With rejuvenated spirits, he continued down the path and into the town square of Hollow Bastion.

First thing he saw was a line of quaint houses on cobblestone streets. A few people were grouped together, pointing to various structures and using a lot of random hand gestures. Light took a look himself and realized that while the houses looked fine, the rest of the town didn't. Some buildings were badly damaged, most boarded up and covered in graffiti. An imaginary light bulb went on above the teen's head: Jeenkies, a clue!

He quietly sidled past the group and into the shopping section of the town. The few stores that were open didn't appear to be selling much…could it be because they were being run by Moogles? He was about to walk up to a stall when a small black creature sprung up from the ground and made a mad dash in his direction.

"Ahhh!" Light squealed in a voice he prayed no one had heard. He pranced around the creature (a heartless) as it tried to swipe at him, running in frightened circles. Finally realizing that he was five times the damn thing's size, he stomped his foot down and squished it.

"Eeeeeewwwwwwww!" Light shuddered. "It's all gross and gooey!" He rubbed his foot on the ground, trying to clean the gunk off. He was nearly finished when the remnants of the heartless evaporated in a black smoke and left behind a large blue and yellow cube.

"Hm? I wonder what this is—"

"MUNNY!" The Moogles screamed and immediately abandoned their shops to make a dash for the bright object.

"Money?" Light mumbled and realized the cube must be valuable. He dived for it and tucked it under his arm as he was bombarded by the flying bears. Whacking them with his arm, he stumbled to his feet to get away. "Back! Get back! It's mine, damnit! You can't take my precious booty!"

They chased him out of the shopping square and back to the residential part of town. The group of people saw him battling the Moogles and ran over to help.

A girl with several ninja blades released them with professional accuracy and they took out a few of the creatures. An older man with blonde hair swung a spear and that knocked out the Moogles as well. But it was the young guy with the brown hair and clad in leather that decided to just whip out a long gun…sword…thing and blast them out the air, loud gunshots ringing in the closed-in street.

By the time they were finished, the ground was littered with beheaded Moogles, cotton spilling out of large slits as though it were blood. It was a complete teddy bear massacre.

Still shaken up, Light gasped, "Are they usually that violent?"

The blonde man smirked and brushed a fist across his nose. "Nah. I see there you got yerself a piece of munny. That makes moogles go crazier than a chocobo in heat—" his friends gave him a horrified and disgusted look— "Gotta make sure you keep it hidden and only show 'em the money you plan to buy with."

Ignoring the over-bearing country accent (and whatever the hell a chocobo was), Light tucked that information away for certain use in the future.

"Hey, never seen you before," the girl that'd used the ninja blades said. "Do you live around here?"

"Um…uh…" Light stammered.

"Hey, if you do, we could really use your help," The gun-toting guy said. "We're trying to restore Hollow Bastion back to its former glory days of Radiant Garden. I'm Leon, head of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee."

Light's body began to vibe in that way that knew he was on the cusp of something important. "Oh really? That's pretty awesome. What do I have to do to join?"

"Nothing! Just take this honorary club membership card and we'll give you the details," Leon said.

"'Honorary', huh?" A new person said, a man with pointed blonde hair. "What makes him so special?"

"Cloud, I am _not _in the mood for this," Leon snarled at him and stormed past. Light meekly followed after him into one of the small houses. Inside, the place was full of books lying everywhere. A chalkboard with incomprehensible scrawling stood in a corner. At a small table sat an elderly man in long blue robes and a beard that'd make even Dumbledore jealous. Across from him was a young woman in a pink dress with a small red jacket. The two looked up and smiled when Leon entered.

"Oh my! I see we have a visitor!" the older man exclaimed, hopping up. "Come in, come in! Do sit!"

Light waved him off with a mild-mannered 'no thank-you', continuing to look around. It was then that he noticed the most obvious feature of the room, a giant computer that took up half the wall. In front of this plopped the country guy and he began to key in random commands.

The woman at the table got up and walked over to Light, radiating…purity. Ahh, the light! Her goodness! It was too much! Not being able to stand in her presence, he took a large step backwards away from her.

"Aww, don't be shy," she said. "I'm Aerith."

From the man named Cloud, Light heard him scoff, "Tch, you'll never be Aeris."

Leon whispered back to him, "Hey, the chick had a twin sister. Who knew! That's what I call a win right there!"

"Please, you couldn't get a woman if you tried!" Cloud shot at him.

"At least I'm not obsessed with…what's his name? Zack? 'Oh Zack, can you ever forgive me, Zack? I miss you, Zack! I never got a chance to tell you I love you, Zack!'"

"That's _it!_" Cloud growled and next thing everyone knew, the two had tackled each other and were a mass of fighting bodies on the floor. Light took a large step to the side to get out of the way, which put him behind the chair of the man at the computer.

"Ain't she a beaut," he chuckled. "This thing here is helpin' to keep an eye on the town. That, and Leon's heartless control device."

Light paused for a second. It watched the entire town? Would it pick up on Marluxia and Roxas? "Oh…that's…nice." He mumbled for lack of anything better to say.

"Oi, call me Cid," the man said. With a thumb, he gestured behind him to the fighting pair. "And ignore those two. They've got issues bigger than Tifa's breasts!"

This effectively stopped the fight and Cloud sprang to his feet, glaring at the man, but didn't say anything. Leon got up and dusted himself off. As if nothing had happened, he pulled a pen from his pocket and handed it to Light. "Never did get your name, stranger. Sign it on the back of that card I gave you so I can enter it into our computer system."

With the table being cluttered from the tea the old wizarding man and the woman were sharing, Light simply turned to the wall he was pressed against and signed his name as "Light Yagame."

"Pretty stupid, these cards," Cloud snorted, ever the pessimistic one. He pulled his out and turned it backwards and forwards, showing it to Light. His was signed Cloud Strife. "He acts like this is some sort of major world-renown club. What's really sickening is that he thinks restoring the town will give him back the honor that he lost for not being able to save his previous world. Yeah right."

"Why do you hate him so much?" Light curiously asked.

Here, Cloud blanched for a moment, then gritted his teeth. "Because everyone thinks he soooo cooool! I can be emo too! I have a tragic backstory also! And I have Mako blue eyes! I am the perfect badboy but ever since _he _came, he's been stealing my shine!"

"…I think we just broke the fourth wall here," Light muttered.

"Cloud, would you do me a favor?" Aerith asked.

"Not interested," Cloud said before she could even get out the request. The woman seemed undaunted, as though this were usual.

"Could you go find Tifa for us? You know cellphone service is still kind of sketchy here." The woman threw in that pure smile of hers and Light found himself melting from it.

Cloud on the other hand, again muttered "Not interested" but still got up and headed out. Before leaving, he paused and fiercely whispered, "And that's another thing! _I _have a catchphrase!" And with that, he slammed the door behind him.

It was as though the man had taken a storm cloud with him and the mood lightened up in the cabin. The ninja star girl (Yuffie) kindly explained the history of the committee to him over a casual game of Texas Hold'em. Except she kept winning. And winning. And after the tenth loss, Light didn't think she was so precious and cute anymore but a con artist in disguise. He'd love to see her up against Luxord.

After they were done, the girl checked her watch and exclaimed, "I better go fetch Cloud and Tifa. No telling what those two are up to."

Seeing this as a chance to take his own leave, he protested her going and said, "I'll do it. I need to get headed home anyways but I'll find him and pass along the message for you guys." He stood up and headed for the door, waving goodbye to everyone.

"Come back soon!" they called out to him. Light did more cheesy waving and pasted on a corny anime smile until he was over the threshold. Instantly dropping the act, he nearly gagged from the lameness. He had no intention of finding Cloud because he had no intention of ever coming back. Instead he turned in the direction of the town square to retrace his steps.

As he passed by the shops again, everything was eerily quiet. The moogles that'd managed to survive floated behind their counters sporting bruises and a few had missing limbs as well. All of them were giving him death glares. One was even slowly sharpening a butcher knife on a stone, never taking his eyes off of him. Light hurried his pace lest they come after him again.

He continued walking down the path until he realized he was actually going in the wrong direction. This path led to higher elevation on top of the surrounding cliffs of Hollow Bastion. Well, if nothing else, it would give him a bird's eye view so as to tell where he needed to go.

A few more minutes brought him to a flat plateau that overlooked a deep ravine. He was actually shocked though to see a hoard of heartless down there. And…something very tiny was twisting and dodging them, the sun flashing off their weapons.

Roxas! The boy had whipped out not one but two Keyblades and was handling the infestation with ease. For each death, a heart floated up to the sky and disappeared in the atmosphere. As Light turned away, he could've sworn he heard something that sounded like "Sora's could _never _do this!" float through the air along with a laugh that was filled with extreme glee.

Well, Roxas was still busy for the moment, Light gratefully noted. He walked along the plateau edge to see the layout of the town he needed but was suddenly interrupted by someone's talking. Actually, two people.

Somehow he had failed to notice that Cloud was there, along with a man with very long silver hair and clad in black leather. Come to think of it, there were a _lot _of people here that wore leather. _He _wore leather too! Where the hell were they getting their clothes from?

Light crept up to the other two slowly. Cloud was holding a massive sword in his hand, one of those classic ones used in more anime than he cared to think about. On the other hand, the second man's was much thinner but unnaturally long, at least eight feet. Light was perplexed as to how the hell anyone wielded weapons like that.

And yet…there must've been a way. He had no weapon himself to use besides his powers and one attack was a complete overkill while the other drained him thoroughly of his energy. It was impossible to last in a battle with those attacks alone.

By now, he'd come within only a few yards of the pair. Cloud was shouting out some dialogue about how the other guy had burned down his village, killing his family and subsequently darkening his heart. The other man's lips spread into a cruel smile.

"But Cloud…your people killed Mother. I did nothing more than take from you what was taken from me. But if you're unwilling to see the reason in that, then you can fight me. I, the great Sephiroth!"

"SEPH-I-ROTH!" A random chorus sang.

Light froze, thinking he'd lost it but Cloud had frozen too. "What the—!"

"Yeah, that happens," Sephiroth shrugged, completely nonchalant and tossing a strand of his long hair over a shoulder. "But you see, Cloud, even the heavens sing my praises! Nobody can defeat me!"

"Sephiroth, huh," Light tried the name out.

"SEPHIROTH!" the voices said again.

That's when the other two finally noticed him. The one named Sephiroth called out, "Did you say my name? Everytime you do, they repeat it. And while I love it, let's not go overboard, please."

"I'm going to kill you, Sephiroth!" Cloud shouted.

"SEPHI—"

"Shut up!" Sephiroth yelled. "From here on out, unless I say 'Sephiroth'—"

"SEPHIRO—"

"I WASN'T FINISHED YET! Unless I and I alone say my name, nobody repeats it! Got it?"

The chorus was quiet.

"Good! Now where were we?"

"Right about…here," Light said, his face darkened with mirth. In his hands was the Death Note. Written down on the paper were the names Cloud Strife and Sephiroth. "I'm going to need to take your energy, if you don't mind."

Both men suddenly grabbed their chest in pain and fell to their knees. Truth be told, it was on a random gamble that Light wrote down Sephiroth's name since a last name hadn't been stated. But guys like Sephiroth, clearly the villan, rarely have last names. Anime had taught him at least that.

Within moments, the two had stopped moving and lay curled in fetal positions on the ground. Approaching cautiously, he tapped them with a foot to make sure they were dead. Satisfied that they were, he made a break for Cloud's sword and tried to heft it up. But of course he couldn't lift it.

"Oh, come on! Not one of those stupid conditions where only the damn hero of the show can wield it like in Inuyasha or something!" He tried pulling and pushing the sword over from where it was stuck into the dirt but it wouldn't budge. Finally giving up, he gave it a fierce kick which did nothing but send a sharp pain throbbing all the way up his leg. In a foul mood, he limped over to Sephiroth's sword.

With caution, he picked it up. It would be his luck that the thing zapped him upon contact. But his hand was fine. The sword was thankfully light and he gave it a small swing…and was instantly thrown off balance. He reasoned that it'd take some practice to wield the long sword and leaned down to pull the sheath and holster off of Sephiroth.

Just as he was about to put the sword away, a small burst went off in front of him in a now familiar way and there stood Misty again. Floating a few inches off the ground, the ethereal figure pointed to the weapon this time. "Do you want it?" it asked in a genderless voice. This time, it didn't come from within Light like back at Port Royal but was spoken verbally.

His pleased smile hadn't faded yet and with complete cockiness he replied, "Yeah. I actually would like it."

The Nobody nodded once and floated closer. Putting both hands above the weapon, it closed its eyes and concentrated on something. The sword began to glow with a vibrant blue aura and shake violently. Light dropped it on the ground, fearing that it would slice his hands if he tried to hang on. It continued to rattle and tremor dangerously and only once it reached its peak of quaking did it finally stop and fall silent. The blue aura seeped back into the sword.

Misty stepped back, giving another solitary nod. "It is done. I have quelled the spirit of the past owner but it will not hold forever. Tread carefully." With that, the Nobody blinked and was gone.

"You know, I think I liked you better when you couldn't talk," Light mumbled. He picked the sword up, noticing that the creature had shortened its length. At least there was that to be thankful for. Turning back to the two bodies, he mimicked the Nobody's pose and managed to absorb the life force of both men.

As soon as he was finished though, a loud crackle went off in his brain, like static electricity, and he fell to his knees holding his head. A multitude of pictures went by, only a few of them discernable. He made out one of a burning village, a procession of military men, a voice, a woman…she looked like Aerith…he felt anger, hatred so strong he could barely control it, saw a glass tank with horribly deformed organs inside, a plaque that said Jenova…

With another sharp stab, the images stopped and he lay trying to catch his breath from the ragged panting he'd been reduced to. What the hell was that? Were those…their memories? Light remembered that Cloud had been yelling at Sephiroth about burning down his village. And back at the cabin, the man hadn't seemed too particularly close to Aerith, saying she wasn't Aeris. Was that woman…dead? Had Sephiroth killed her?

He struggled to his feet, leaning against Cloud's sword to stabilize him. During the spazz attack, it would appear that both bodies had dissolved and blown away. The sky held the trace remnants of their bright orbs as they floated off.

_Okay, this is _really _starting to turn into a very cliché anime! _Light said screw it to walking back and took his chances with his own portal. Even if he happened to walk back in on Lexaeus in the shower, at least he'd be back at the castle. He'd beseech someone else to go tell Marluxia and Roxas that he was alright.

As it was though, he'd finally formed the portal correctly and recognized the area where the three had parted ways. And…the two were already waiting for him.

"Where the hell have you been?" The Petal Professor shouted. "We've been here ages waiting on you. And…what's that?" He pointed a finger at Light's new weapon.

"Oh…just a souvenir I picked up. If I want to blend in, I might as well have a weapon like the locals."

"Actually, nothing spells 'new' more than tourist shopping," Marluxia grumbled.

Light shrugged him off. "And besides, I'd just seen Roxas not too long ago. He was fighting this enormous amount of heartless."

Roxas turned to him, amazed. "You saw me? How'd I look? Did I look awesome? I think so. I took a picture with my phone and sent it to Sora. Heh, wish I could've seen the look on his face when he got it!"

"…Is Sora your…"

"Somebody? Yeah. But it's a little game we like to play. I don't really hate him…okay, I don't hate him as _much _as I act like I do. But it certainly keeps things interesting."

Light blinked at him. "Uh-huh."

"Well, happy you all had fun," Marluxia cut in. "I had to way-lay a woman today. I didn't want to but…she started it first. Tifa or something was her name. Caught me lurking in Ansem's office and challenged me to a battle."

Light chuckled at the irony but Roxas looked horrified. "Marluxia! You're not supposed to hit a girl!"

"Oh hush, I practically _look _like a woman, I think I should get a pass for this one." Fuming, he opened the portal back for them. "And if any of you try to take advantage of that statement, I won't hesitate to slice your heads off."

The threat was likely idle but neither of them pressed the issue. Coming out the other side of the portal, Light was immediately accosted by a bubble of energy in the form of Demyx.

"Great, you guys got back just in time! Xemnas is calling us to a meeting. Guess what? Kingdom Hearts is complete!" The Nocturne began to prance around the room with one of his Dancer Nobodies, cheering about finally getting a heart.

But Light on the other hand instinctively knew that something was just not right…

* * *

Random tidbit, I originally had it to where Light was going to kill Mickey too but I didn't want to have him instantly recognize the Disney characters since he hadn't recognized the worlds as well. Also, Light wouldn't have been able to wield his Keyblade and writing that scene would've been pretty pointless as a whole. But yes, I wanted to have a Disney death in this; Light, for all his humor here, is still an evil bastard. Don't ever forget it ^_^

Again, this was the next to last chapter. I finally will tie up all the loose ends and give this wacky story some closure. So sorry for the abrupt end.

Reviews revive Cloud. Because reviews are good and Cloud is good, XD


	12. Ragnarok

A bit of a lengthy wait for this chapter it feels like and because it's the last one, a lot of ideas were presented here. Seventeen pages, people…seventeen. I have beaten my record. Make sure you have some time on your hands before you start reading. Get good and comfy, xD.

This chapter is comedy mixed with lots of action, sometimes serious, other times I make more jokes. There's also some bits from Birth by Sleep in here…main thing you need to know is that _X_-blade is pronounced just like Keyblade (and that _X_ actually looks more fancy but I got lazy and didn't look up the symbol. Shh, don't tell anyone that).

I end this story on the same day I created this account. Happy fifth anniversary to me ^_^

* * *

**Ragnarok**

"This is it. Finally, our time of retribution has come!" Matsuda said excitedly. "We can finally get revenge for our fallen master!"

"We're not samurai," Soichiro grumbled. "For that matter, we don't even have real weapons. Just sticks and stones—"

"May break my bones but whips and chains excite me!" Matsuda finished.

In the firelight, both L and Soichiro gave him extremely horrified expressions.

"Erm…you know…just putting that out there…heh-heh…"

"Disgusting dialogue aside, this truly is our moment of redemption," L spoke. "And as leader of this task force (seconded by you, chief Yagami), I as master have indeed 'fallen'. Both my rank and my intelligence have been disregarded, putting me on the losing end. And if there's one thing I hate, it's losing." L viciously snapped off a corner of paopu fruit with these last words.

"I'd just like us all to work together again," Soichiro sighed. He picked up a pile of sticks that'd been fashioned into spears and absentmindedly checked the points for their sharpness. "The good days when we'd all put our heads together to solve a case back at the headquarters. When we'd have office picnics. And especially when we'd drink all the coffee in the machine so Matsuda couldn't have any—"

"HEY!"

Soichiro gave another sigh. "Yeah…those were the good days." He paused for a second, then jumped up. "Well, looks like there's nothing left to do but kill all the traitors!"

"Hear, hear," L approved, also standing.

"Wait, what? No! There has to be another way," Matsuda argued, but stood up as well. "I mean, I know what I said earlier but…that was just talk! C'mon, we're men of the law! This isn't the way we solve things!"

"Matsuda, there _is _no law here," Soichiro snapped. "Not in this no-mans land. It's Us and Them and I'm not going to stand for being pushed around by Them. This is a history lesson for you, Matsuda; nobody ever got anything done by sitting on their ass and playing nice. Everything, _everything _that has been accomplished has been by war. Not saying it's right but it's certainly effective."

Matsuda opened his mouth to protest but the duo were already walking away. Left with no other option, he meekly trudged along behind them.

~.~.~.~.~

"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod!" Demyx gushed from where he stood beside Light on the top outside platform of the castle. He gripped his arm so tightly, Light was sure he'd find bruises there later. "I can't believe this is actually happening! Aren't you excited?"

"…ecstatic," Light mumbled. Forced to grab a spot front and center due to Demyx, he had an unobstructed view of Xemnas and Saix standing in front of the group. Xemnas had his hands raised to the moon and was doing another long monologue about hearts. Saix looked on rapturously, as though he were swallowing the words of a deity

"And now that you are complete, Kingdom Hearts, let us rejoice in your gift of life, the only gift we Nobodies have ever wanted. As you shine your pale light on this empty realm, bequeath us your bountiful abundance of wealth, share your riches with us! We, who have walked in the darkness so long, lost in the vast nothingness, feeling nothing, being nothing, it is our time to at last awaken and breathe life anew!"

Light began to nod off, especially since his arm was going dead due to Demyx. But some unknown time later, it was the Nocturne who nudged him. He ignored it, figuring the boy accidentally bumped him until it happened again, harder this time and coupled with his name.

"Hey! Aixort! Wake up. Xemnas is calling for you!"

Exhausted still from all the walking he'd done on his previous mission (and the Moogle fight…he would never forget that, _could _never forget that), he was a bit displeased with his doze being over. He'd been hoping to just get the damn heart and then make a break for it during all the merry-making the Org would surely be doing. Aside from Demyx, he could see several others jittering, especially Axel, who was a contrast to the pleased and smug looks on Roxas and Xion's faces who stood beside him. They fully knew it was them who'd made this day happen and would surely be gloating about it later.

But right now, Xemnas was staring at him with a very expectant look on his face, like he'd kept him waiting too long. He stepped forward, hoping the man wasn't going to try to embarrass the new guy.

"We need one final key to open Kingdom Hearts," Xemnas spoke to the crowd. "Unfortunately, simple Keybearers aren't enough."

Xion and Roxas gave a huff of disdain.

"No, what we need…is something a little extra. Someone that controls the heavens and the cosmos themselves! Someone…like you, Aixort." Here, he dramatically held out a hand to Light, turning his wrist oh so smoothly and extending his arm slowly. Plastering on a smile he added, "Be the key to our future."

Light didn't think it took much more consideration and began to stretch out his own arm. Right before the fingers were to connect though, a bright pink flash flew between them. There in the ground was one of Xigbar's arrows, fading away.

"Yeah, see, I can't let'cha do that," Xigbar said, both guns drawn and his smile much more cockier than usual. "You see, I've known you from the start, _Xehanort_. Hell, used to work for ya, if you remember. Oh, wait…you don't! Well allow me to refresh your memory! About…what is it, twelve years back now? You had this idea of obtaining ultimate power by forming a _X_-blade to open Kingdom Hearts but it didn't work, I lost a damn eye, you traded your old man body for a newer one on the market and here we are!"

Xigbar walked a little closer, casually swinging a pistol and keeping the other trained on their leader. "But see, I have a bit of a problem with that ultimate power/world domination thing. Because conquering the world means conquering me, and I'm not layin' down for _nobody._ So. I'm putting a stop to your little plan. Any objections?"

Xemnas had been staring at the ground, his face changing from shock, to confusion and now, he seemingly was hurt at this new revelation. "Xigbar…why? And after I made you number Two. But, if you wish to stop me…you can go back to the darkness you came from!"

Before the Freeshooter could properly react, Xemnas threw a massive sphere of energy at him, bowling him to the ground. In the same motion, he grabbed Light's arm and started forcing him to raise it to the sky. "Ignore him! Open Kingdom Hearts for us, Aixort! Do it!"

Light was torn. If what Xigbar said was true, this meant that none of them would have a heart. And if it wasn't true then…no harm, no foul. But could he take that chance?

He was snapped out of his debate with himself by a blunt object. Saix had cuffed him on the face and rather roughly, judging by the blood in his mouth. Head still reeling, he could barely focus on both of the men shouting at him, Xemnas and Saix trying to force his hands up. That was it. He'd made up his mind.

He was able to wrench away from Xemnas by stomping on his foot but when he tried the same on Saix, coupled with what should've been an elbow to the stomach, the Luna Diviner abruptly stopped him. "Yeah, I've seen _Miss Congeniality _too." A second later, a fist to the face made him stumble to the ground.

He coughed up more blood, shocked that Nobodies could bleed. Wasn't the heart needed to pump blood? Damnit, he was thinking too much! Saix was slowly advancing, pulling his claymore out of thin air and his cruelest smile yet adorning his face. It would seem he enjoyed torturing others. Perhaps after this, he and Larxene should go get a cup of coffee and do some catching up.

Light scrambled to his feet, pulling himself up by the rail on the side of the platform. Saix was mere feet away but behind him he could see Xemnas holding his own with a massive barrier as the other Organization members tried to break through it. It would seem a protest had erupted about realizing they'd just done unpaid work what with the possibility of a heart ruined by Xemnas' greediness. It was fascinating, but he really didn't need to concern himself with them. Saix was upon him now and lifting that claymore dangerously high.

"This is it. Any last words?" The man sneered, a fittingly wolfish smile curling back his lips.

"…Are you serious? I mean, really, who says that! I've tried my hardest to not compare all of this to anime but this is just the last straw! You actually have the audacity to—"

It would seem Seven had more audacity than to just use corny lines. He'd even taken a swing at Light in the midst of his own one-man rant. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes were those blowfish spikes coming toward his head. He didn't feel anything though…at least the man was kind enough to kill him instantly.

He opened his eyes to see what the afterlife was like and was amazed (and partially disappointed, truth be told) that he was still alive. Separating him from Saix was a bluish barrier rippling with energy currents. And beside him stood…was this Misty?

"No…it can't be! What is this…this energy?" Saix cried out, scrambling backwards from the sheer power emanating from the barrier. "This is unreal! Your power level has to be—"

"If you say over nine thousand, I'm going to give you a swift kick where the sun don't shine," Light interrupted. He turned fully to his Nobody and gasped. She wasn't ethereal or see-through anymore. In fact, it wasn't even a she! Effeminate with long, golden hair, it was still clear that it was a male.

"What in the hell—?"

"Wrong direction, Light, we're from above," the old Misty said. "You wanted a Nobody, well here you go. Took awhile…sorry about that. But you weren't ready to absorb my full awesomeness."

Light frowned. "You're sounding as cocky as me."

The angel shrugged. "I'm your Nobody for a reason. But feast your eyes on this!" It swung an arm out and on the outside of the barrier appeared more Nobodies. But these ones were…

"Secret-service angels! With giant wings! And sunglasses! And some of you are in spandex in various colors of the rainbow! With a Megazord! And theme music! This is the best present ever!"

"You're getting out of character," Misty reminded him.

"Not the first time," Light waved him off. "But really…isn't this a bit…I dunno, excessive? I mean, do they _really _need a Megazord?"

The angel threw his arms up and stomped off, completely walking through the energy field. "I just can't win with you! It's first not enough, now it's too much!" He snapped his fingers and the Megazord disappeared. "Happy?"

Light nodded his approval. "Perfect." He turned back to Saix, but Seven was gone, back across the platform to help Xemnas. It would appear he'd been doing quite a good job at it too, seeing as how several members were lying in pain on the ground. He himself had transformed into a berserker state and was wildly swinging his weapon, keeping everyone at bay and back from Xemnas who was still hiding behind his own barrier.

Locking his eyes on the Superior, Light dissolved his shield and ran across the stage. Halfway there, he reached behind him and pulled Sephiroth's old sword from its sheath. He could feel his powers increase, noticed the aura of energy flowing into his hands and coursing through his body. And just _knew _he was going to break through Xemnas's shield.

Which is why it came as a complete shock when he didn't, and instead bounced off as though it were rubber and was blasted into the air. He flipped uncontrollably half a dozen times before pulling himself upright and managing to stop his momentum lest he disappear into the stratosphere.

"Gee, numbnuts, what were you expecting to happen?" Misty, the now inappropriately named Nobody scoffed. "Besides, you're trying to wield a weapon made for someone triple your strength and you've not practiced a day with it. I'd advise you to put it away and try a new plan."

Light rubbed his chest where it stung from the blast, observing the situation below them. "That'd be a great idea if I had other options of weapons but I don't. You, or whoever the hell creates weapons around here, seemed to have short-changed me. So quit mocking me and just create me something."

"Um, yeah, can't do that," the Nobody mumbled, examining his nails.

"What? You can randomly create everything else I wished for but the very thing I _need, _you claim you can't? What kind of bulls—"

"We have limits too, you know. Nobody subjects are not very durable and anything created by them isn't either. Just look down there."

Light peered down and noticed with horror that nearly all of his Nobodies had been wiped out either by Saix's swinging or by touching Xemnas' barrier. None of them had made a single dent of damage. Worse still was that very few people in the Organization were up. He could make out Lexaeus sending a shock wave through the ground to disrupt the pair but Saix only jumped out of the way and Xemnas didn't feel it within his bubble. Xigbar was still fighting and unable to get to the leader, he'd taken to shooting at Saix. But before Light's own eyes, he witnessed Saix block a barrage of arrows with his claymore, sending them right back to the man. Xigbar fell out of the sky, clutching his side in agony.

The last few who weren't hurt were wisely staying back and observing for an opening. Axel was up, but was limping. The two children had their Keyblades drawn, fierce determination marking their faces as they awaited a time to attack. Larxene was unhurt as well, but was only kneeling by Marluxia's fallen form, seething with fury.

Things had clearly gone from bad to worse.

In a near epiphanic moment, Light knew it was up to him to save them. "Failure is not an option," he whispered and Misty nodded in his peripheral vision. He aimed himself downwards and began a rushing descent, becoming a streak in the sky as he fell.

Saix was still battling Lexaeus, but looked up just in time to catch the blinding flash Light detonated in his face using his hand. While painless, it blinded him for a moment and to the side, Xaldin stabbed the Diviner through with several lances.

Light himself blew past them and instead of charging Xemnas head on (apply directly to the forehead!) like last time, he threw Sephiroth's sword into the barrier and pulled back. The weapon actually stuck and the strong pulsing power mixed violently with the Superior's, causing the shield to revolve wildly and spark with lightning. Xemnas tried to reach up and remove the blade but was instantly burned, recoiling his hand quickly. But the action was just enough. With his mind distracted for that one instant, the entire barrier gave a final crackle and dissolved, the sword falling calmly to the ground.

"I must say, Aixort, I'm impressed," Xemnas called up to him. "So you broke through my shield; you must be very proud of yourself. But what, you think you're going to be their savior? Please. Don't let your 'divine' powers go to your head."

Light slowly drifted down, trying to get a little closer to get a better aim for another attack, at least something to startle him. Just as he was a few feet from the ground, he noticed at the same time Xemnas did that Axel had thrown one of his chakrams.

"_I'll _be the one to kill you!" He screamed at him. Xemnas easily dodged the weapon, which also put him in momentum to avoid Axel's next attack of using his body to spread flames around the area. He threw several more shadow chakrams but they each dissolved upon contact with a smaller shield Xemnas set up.

In the instant that Axel had first attacked though, Light dove for the abandoned sword that'd been dropped. Doing a combat roll to get back to his feet (wanting to be dramatic; when would he ever have use for a combat roll again?), he saw that those that were still conscious were up fighting again, Roxas, Xion, and Larxene finally joining in.

Saix was up as well and had made it his personal duty to handle Axel, blocking him from attacking Xemnas and following his every movement. The ex-best friends still had a score to settle.

But while each enemy was preoccupied, this made it that much easier for Light to prepare a sneak attack. Misty thankfully sent out more Nobodies to help in the effort and Light concentrated on absorbing more of the power from the sword.

Again, his hands began to be infused with the strange aura, felt his strength increasing and readied the blade to finally strike down the Superior—all for him to give a loud scream of pain and crumble to the ground. The flashes of Sephiroth and Cloud's memories came much more vividly this time but also more painfully. He could read misery and despair on the faces of citizens as they gazed up into a sky filled with a Meteor that would surely decimate the planet, saw himself floating in a capsule of some sort next to a dark haired man…saw the man shot down by several others before his own eyes….text about the Ancients, more about Jenova…Mother…

Several minutes had to have passed before Light was able to open his eyes again and slowly uncurl himself from where he had fallen. As he blinked in the moonlit night, he realized that nearly everyone was gone. Everyone in the Organization was now held back by a barrier, Saix included. Only person standing in the middle of the platform was Xemnas, who was actually patiently waiting for him to come to his senses.

"Aww, was the sword's power too much for you?" he cooed. "You got lucky with that first hit but now the sword is rejecting you and you're powerless. But I'll give you a fair shot, just you and me, one on one. Not even Saix will assist me. So, Aixort, do your worse."

Jello didn't seem wobbly enough to describe Light's legs as he tried to stand. He had to stab the sword into the ground and pull himself up but even then it was the only thing keeping him on his feet. There was no way he'd be able to fight Xemnas in this condition and even before the horrific blast from the past, he didn't stand a chance.

Xemnas knew this and smiled cruelly. "My, my, giving up so easily? What a pity." Here, he started to advance towards him. Out of his arms came red ethereal blades that singed the ground where his hands hung at his side. It was clear a blow by them would not be very pretty.

Light pulled the sword from the ground and attempted to back away…which came off more like a shuffle in his weak state. More embarrassingly, he tripped on something and fell to the ground; Zexion's lexicon. Stupid nerd, did he have to leave his stuff lying around?

He furiously picked it up and flung it at Xemnas as he drew closer. It naturally missed and only soared over his shoulder, sliding to the other side of the platform but halted from going any further by the shield. Well, Light thought, it was at least worth a try.

"It's a shame that things have to end this way," Xemnas said, standing directly in front of him. "You were actually one of the better additions to this Organization. But we have no room for traitors in our happy flock." He drew back his arm, the red blade quivering in excitement or rage, perhaps both. "Goodbye, _Light_."

The arm swung and the boy could only bring the sword up to protect himself. There was actually no need to though. In front of him was his angelic Nobody, taking the blow even though its body was frail.

"Misty, no!" Light shouted theatrically, catching the angel as it fell into his arms. "Don't die on me, Misty! You have so much to live for!"

"…Light…it's alright. I'm just going back where I belong." The Nobody gave a feeble cough which was clear was fake. "But you must defeat Xemnas. You have to. Oh, and Light? You'll be…my living legacy." Closing its eyes, it faded away to become soft white orbs that drifted up into the moon of Kingdom Hearts.

With his last Nobody gone, Light was ready to call it quits and accept his fate but suddenly his chest gave a harsh pound. Almost like…a heartbeat? This entire fight was over hearts (quite ridiculous, he had to admit), so that couldn't have been his heart. He gasped as it happened again and figured he was about to have another memory attack. Xemnas wouldn't wait around for this one to finish; he'd kill him right there. At least he wouldn't be conscious for it.

But instead, it was his body that warped, not his mind. The memories came, but they were clearer, could form a movie in a sense and was understandable. Cloud's story was of anguish over the death of his friends, Sephiroth's was the resentment of being the product of scientific experimentation. The two halves battled for dominance of Light's body, each showing their traits on the outside such as Cloud's trademark Mako eyes and Sephiroth's…one wing?

Light quirked an eyebrow and then sighed. "You know what? I'm not even going to ask. There's no point anymore. I get to be the living carnation of Cloud and Sephiroth—"

"SEPHIROTH!"

"Do I _look _like him? He said only if—" But he was forced to stop when he realized his short brown hair had now been replaced with long silver strands tinged with gold. Include the sword and the wing, he at least resembled a very bad cosplayer of the man. "Huh. Well, I'll be damned."

He looked up at Xemnas who actually looked frightened. For the benefit of the doubt, it's not everyday you see teenage boys morph into half angel men. For good measure, he'd retreated behind his barrier yet again.

"What a little bitch!" Light cackled, high off of his new power. "I'll tear through that thing now no problem!"

WRONG! Even with his newfound speed and strength, he still continued to bounce off the shield. The sword now refused to pierce through and in total, all of his efforts were completely thwarted.

"Ineffective no jutsu!" Light hissed, unable to stop the reference before it spilled from his lips. But now what? If the power of Sephiroth and Cloud combined wasn't enough to stop the great Superior, what was?

For once, the answer came to him without Misty's help. If mere mortal men could not do the job, then the power of the heavens would have to do it for him. As he slowly lifted his arms in the air, he promised himself he would never again say he wanted to be god of a new world again; no god should have to deal with this!

"Cosmic Chaos!" He shouted, feeling a bit lame for actually having to say his attack's name. He could feel the nerdiness seeping into his pores. But if it worked, it worked and this was clearly working if the dark clouds and roiling thunder were anything to go by. In the midst of this storm, large holes in the sky were ripped apart by massive flaming meteors that began to rain around him.

Unfortunately, like the first time, Light failed to protect himself from his own attack. He saw several of the rocks hit the barrier on the outside edges of the platform, immediately dissolving it and freeing the others. Xemnas concentrated on upholding his own but after being bombed with three more meteors, it faltered and then completely fell.

Thrilled, Light was about to cut him down when he saw a single heart fall to the ground. Looking up, he realized with dismay that his attack had also ripped a hole in Kingdom Hearts…freeing its contents for anyone to use. Without meaning to, he'd given Xemnas exactly what he'd wanted.

The leader grinned and wasted no time with ascending up to the moon and taking the hearts for himself. Light shot to the sky as well, swinging at him with the sword much too long for his body and thus missing. The two crackled off of one another as each power met the other but neither were gaining any ground.

Down below them, the Org had teamed up on Saix to finally knock him unconscious and tie him up for measure. "Sailor knots, lets see you get out of that, puppy," Xigbar said and kicked the man for good measure.

Handing out potions and elixirs was the castle's resident Moogle (who Light still wouldn't trust if his life depended on it). For the low, low price of nothing under a thousand munny, he was selling rejuvenating items. Forced to cough up their cash, each person paid the exorbitant fee and was rewarded with their wounds being instantaneously healed.

Back in the air, Light was essentially only on the defense as Xemnas's experienced swings continuously knocked him backwards, making his head spin with each blow. While Light was keeping him from draining Kingdom Hearts, he still wasn't any closer to defeating the Nobody. He took his chances and went for a side shot that looked open but Xemnas quickly countered with an attack so hard, it actually sent him blasting back to the ground where he skidded several yards before coming to a halt.

"Light!" Demyx shouted and ran over towards him. He knelt down and put his head in his lap. "Here buddy, drink this!" He tipped his potion bottle to his lips but Light shook away.

"Don't you need this?"

"Well…no. While everyone else was fighting I...was just playing dead," Demyx said shamefully, making several people behind them groan in disgust. "Hey! You idiots know I'm not cut out for fighting, are you really surprised?"

Light felt this still wasn't very justified but kept his mouth shut.

"Anyways," Demyx continued, speaking just to him, "Since I didn't do anything, I don't need this. I'll let you have it."

It was probably the kindest off-hand gesture anyone had ever done for him and Light was thankful. He drank the potion, also happy he was spared paying the Moogle for it. "This stuff isn't half bad. I wonder what it's made of." He read the label and was sickened to see 'unicorn's blood' as the only ingredient. So much for curiosity…

He started to get back to his feet but someone else called "Wait!" to him. Zexion appeared but wasn't looking him in the face but rather at the ground. "You're going to need more magic power. Your body has to be running nearly on empty by now." He rummaged in his cloak pocket for a moment before procuring an ether bottle. "Here…I've been saving this. I'm more of a magic user so I usually keep several on me. It's my last one, but…you can have it."

Light hesitated for awhile and when too much time had passed, the Illusionist snapped, "Just take it already!" and shoved the bottle in his hand anyway.

Light nodded. "Hey Zexion? Thanks." He didn't miss the small nod and the flush of pride on his face.

Having downed both the potion and the ether (and he was certainly not about to find out what was in the latter), Light indeed did feel rejuvenated. The other members gathered around them, Demyx and Zexion flanking his sides. "Let's finish this," he said, playing the role of the hero to the fullest.

The others nodded too and got into battle positions.

"Formation Alpha Sigma Delta, GO!" Light shouted and jumped into the air. He looked back down and saw that nobody had moved and everyone was giving him perplexed expressions.

"Mate, maybe your Nobodies are willing to play Power Rangers, but we're not," Luxord laughed.

Light scratched his head sheepishly, the gesture made even more strange by his new appearance. "Guess I got ahead of myself. But seriously…kill Xemnas!" This time he pointed a harsh finger at the man who was sucking up the hearts he could while the others were distracted. The group of Nobodies jumped and took to the air after their target.

This time, Axel's chakram did find their mark and grazed Xemnas's jacket. It wasn't much but it meant he was feeling better. The others sent a barrage of magic spells in lieu of physical attacks being too slow and the sky was filled with flashes from lightning, aeroga, blizzard, and even Luxord's attempts at turning Xemnas into a die.

While the Superior harbored massive power, it was no match for the combined power of his fifteen subjects. They joyously kicked his ass back and forth across the light of the moon, even making a game of it by 'passing' him around a circle.

"Heads up, Vexen, it's coming your way!" Xaldin called as he stabbed Xemnas with a lance and blew him toward the scientist.

"I don't think I've ever had so much fun!" Vexen confessed and froze the leader in a pillar of ice before knocking him to someone else with his shield. "Zexion, you're up!"

Zexion calmly opened up his Lexicon and simply said, "Caramelldansen, speedycake version…in Swedish." He closed it and stood back. Within seconds, Xemnas was writhing in agony and grabbing his head, screaming from a song being played in his head that the others had been spared from hearing.

Lexaeus brought up the last of the pinball group and gladly knocked him back with the full force of his tomahawk. "I was saving that swing for Saix…but you'll do equally well."

Xemnas crumbled to a pathetic ball in the air, barely keeping himself aloft. The group nodded their approval, then Xion kindly said to Light, "This was supposed to be your fight. We'll let you deal the final blow."

It was an honor he was going to enjoy. In all his one-winged glory, he drifted forward, his sword glowing at his side. He was about to unleash his attack when he froze. Xemnas…was laughing.

The man sat up, clearly elated by something and seemingly no longer in any pain. "You fools. Have you not noticed? Kingdom Hearts has chosen me to carry its power! Thus I have become the ultimate being! Your mere powers as a Nobody cannot defeat me!"

With only a single swing of his arm, shockwaves sent everyone sprawling backwards through the air or to the ground, leaving only himself and Light yet again with the others trapped behind another wall.

Light considered an extra Cosmic Chaos attack, but Xemnas would certainly be expecting that and it wouldn't be too hard to simply warp out of harms way. If he didn't end the fight now, they'd forever continue in pointless circles.

Struck with the realization that he had no other choice, Light prepared for his final assault. Xemnas, overly-assured in his own strength, stood back and watched as his body first quietly vibrated with energy, then steadily grew stronger as the seconds passed.

"Oh come on, not this stuff again! Light, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me eight or more times, shame on me! Wait…what? Anyways! This isn't going to work. Why don't you just give up and die already?"

The pent up voltage had reached its peak and Light coldly smiled at him. Infused with the abilities of the other two inhabitants, his voice was no longer his own. "You know, Xemnas…I could say the same thing."

Unable to be contained any longer, the energy released in a seismic blast of white light, trademark of Angel's Fury. Everything within range was decimated, including the castle. Light saw the barrier vanish and in his diminishing consciousness, he hoped the other Nobodies were able to teleport to safety. He knew without a doubt though that Xemnas had been hit; their range was too close for him to get away and for confirmation, he could dimly hear the man's final screams over the roar. Orbs of pink dotted the whiteness as the hearts fell again to the earth but the attack had officially destroyed the moon beyond any future repair. The gaping hole that was left formed a vortex akin to a black hole and too weak to resist, he allowed himself to be pulled in.

The last thing he saw before it closed on him was Demyx waving goodbye and Zexion giving him a stoic salute. At least they were safe.

~.~.~.~.~

"Cave Conquerors! ATTACK!" Aizawa instructed his three-man army. Giving a battle cry that sounded like "Ololololololo!" they ran down the side of the cliffs on Destiny Island toward their sworn enemies, the Sand Dwellers.

"Take everything and leave them nothing!" Soichiro cried out and they too ran towards the opposite group giving the classic Xena cry of "Aiyiyiyiyi!"

The groups met at a point not quite on the rocks nor really on the sand and began fighting. Matsuda pushed Ide who cuffed his ear with a hand that wasn't competely balled up and the two began to tussle. Soichiro went after Mogi, kicking him in the shins first, then threw sand in his eyes to blind him. L and Aizawa, as the 'leaders' squared off, L's kicks verses Aizawa's punches.

This went on for several minutes until both sides were exhausted. They hadn't had proper nourishment in awhile and it was starting to show.

Just as L thought he was about to deliver a powerful blow, a bright light went off above them and the groups watched as what appeared to be a shooting star headed straight to the beach.

"It's a bird!" Matsuda cried out.

"It's a plane!" Ide said.

Before anyone else could get off any guesses, the object slammed into the ground at speeds exceeding one-hundred miles an hour…and yet the object managed to stumble back to its feet as though nothing had happened! So's the way of Kingdom Hearts characters…

"It's Light!" Soichiro yelled.

"Uuughh," the boy groaned, shaking his head and trying to get the sand out of his cloak. "_Now _where the hell am I?" He blinked, looking up, and recoiled in shock.

"What the hell happened here?" He yelled, pointing at them. The clothes the men had arrived in were now completely gone. Everyone was wearing something fashioned from either animal hides or large leaves. Added to Aizawa's primitive crown was a bone through his nose and stuck in the ground up on the cliffs was a stake with a boar's head still dripping blood. And while the ground was littered with their weapons, neither side had used them and had basically dissolved to having a pathetic slap fight with each other.

"How long have you guys even been here?" Light asked.

"Um…we arrived, what, yesterday morning?" Matsuda ventured.

"That sounds about right," Mogi said.

Light gaped at them. "You mean to tell me…that in only one day…you became barbaric cave men practically over night? Are you frickin' serious?"

"Aizawa started it!" Matsuda whined.

"No, shut up Matsuda, it's a team effort to sink this low!" Light yelled.

"Speaking of days and whereabouts, where have _you _been, Light?" L asked pleasantly.

"Battling for my life, truth be told," Light told them. Then he looked down at himself. He'd returned back to his normal appearance, the silver hair, black wing and Mako eyes were gone.

The others began changing back into their suits and explaining what they'd been up to, their animosity forgotten. Light told his own long story (although being very vague about Sephiroth's and Cloud's deaths) while pacing the sand and waiting for them to finish dressing. At one point, he reached the side of the cliffs and instead of turning around as he'd been doing, he continued on further, then came to an abrupt halt.

"Would you igits come here for a second, please?" he called behind him. Naturally none of them took too kindly to being called an igit but they ambled up to the spot he was standing at. Light gave a simple point ahead of them and revealed in their exasperated groans.

There, hardly a mile away, was the mainland. Had the group walked only fifty feet farther around the cliffs, they would've seen it on the other side. Their descent from civilized men into barbaric savages was now even more astounding.

"I think I've forever had my fill of fantasy," Light told them and they couldn't agree more. He'd collided with several hearts during his journey through the black hole and thus wasn't a Nobody anymore. He could feel his old powers leaving him and while they'd be missed to a certain extent, they were a reminder of the hectic days he'd just gone through. Using what little energy that remained, he cast open a portal to what he could only hope was the way home.

Above on the rocks were the three silent watchers.

"Maybe we should've just pointed them to the mainland," Kairi shrugged. "Sure would've gotten them off the island quicker."

"That was epic!" Riku said excitedly. "At least now we have something to write about for our summer report."

"Oh yes, I can see the title now, 'Time-Traveling Strangers and the Epic Battle For Survival'", Sora said, rolling his eyes. "But hey, maybe you'll get a D for effort."

Riku shrugged. "Of course I wouldn't really write anything like that. My parents are still terrified of me since I told them I was gone for two years battling the darkness in my heart. Now they think I'm a juvenile delinquent."

"Mine blame you guys for everything and I'm actually not supposed to be hanging out with you," Kairi said. "What about you, Sora?"

"…mine believed me," Sora said.

"What!"

"Yeah. They know Keybladers exist…in fact, they threw me a whole party when I came back as a congratulations for being one. I told them you guys were ones too and they called your houses to invite you guys over but Riku, your parents insisted that you were heading to boot camp that very day and Kairi, yours just slammed the phone on them."

Kairi and Riku gave equal sighs. "Sora, I want to be adopted by your family," Riku murmured.

"I'll second that," Kairi added.

Sora smiled. Now wouldn't that be something?

~.~.~ Epilogue ~.~.~

Light successfully managed to lead the group back to Japan and as only a shadow of himself, he entered his body that was still in the hospital bed, returning the pulse back to the body. He insisted on being released that day.

It would seem that for everyone, a different amount of time had passed during the events. Light figured three days had gone by while the task force claimed it was one. But back at the headquarters, it was Watari that revealed that it'd only been six hours.

They entered the compound to find the man spinning and dancing around the ground floor and singing about…sweets. More specifically, about how he didn't have to make them anymore. He froze mid-turn though when the door opened up and as though none of them had already seen him, he returned to being the impassive Watari they were used to.

"So, what kept you?" He asked calmly, straightening a stack of files on a desk.

The others looked at one another and L chuckled. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

* * *

Chay for long, semi-happy endings!

This, I do believe, at last marks the end of me and Death Note. It was interesting mixing the two together but I think the Kingdom Hearts side of this prevailed more than the Death Note half…a clear sign that I'm moving on.

With that said, my next two projects might not be done simultaneously but they are officially the next two things to be posted by me. The first story is a somber Akuroku one titled 'Shattered'; you can check my profile for details. The second isn't titled but since Final Fantasy VII has taken over my life (it's mostly why I was late updating this…), a story for that is most certainly coming up. I might still write both at the same time, that way you guys have some comedy to balance out the sadder fic.

So, this has been fun and interesting but I'm happy it's over. I'd like to hear your final questions and comments so review please ^_^


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